JARING KAWAN

“JejARING psiKososial dan kesehatAn jiWa dalam penAnggulangan beNcana”

• Vision & Mision
• Values & Benefits
• Scope

JARING KAWAN
(A network on psychosocial and mental health in dealing disaster)

JARING KAWAN was founded due to the needs for encourage individuals and groups.organizations to pay attention to the psychosocial and mental health aspects of survivors when they provide social interventions, especially in dealing disaster.

It has been known that Indonesia is an archipelago located in a vulnerable place for natural disaster. Furthermore, Indonesia is very diverse in culture, religion, and language which is potential for conflict inter cultural and/or religion. This situation can lead to a man-made disaster. Therefore, a national coordination in dealing with this issue is crucial. The Indonesian government, through Badan Nasional Penanggunalangan Bencana (BNPB) or the Disaster Management National Agency, has responsibility to coordinate stake holders in dealing disasters across provinces. This is not easy and needs supports from communities at individual as well as institutional levels.

When a disaster occurs, coordination is often a problem because the chaos situation in the field makes information is not circulated well and clearly.  Consequently, the efforts to deal with the disaster problem are not optimal. The psychosocial and mental health aspects of the survivors and field workers are often neglected, as many focus more on the physical and medical aspects. Stress, psychological recovery, and other psychosocial problems commonly become crucial few weeks after the disaster. Therefore, every program on dealing with disaster needs to pay attention to the psychosocial and mental health aspects of the survivors, so that the recovery could be done thoroughly.

In January 9 – 11, 2009 a number of experts and those who are interested in dealing the disaster management met together to discuss the importance of psychosocial and mental health aspects of disaster management, and the need to develop a coordination among stake holders. In the end of the meeting, JARING KAWAN was declared by DR. Syamsul Ma’arif, M.Si, the chair of BNPB. JARING KAWAN is a network for experts and those interested in psychosocial and mental health issues of disaster management share information and interdependent in the capacity building.

(lihat Profil jejaring/Network Profile)