The Survivors of Political Violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Mental Health Care System through Alternative Treatment Interventions

Abstract

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan is the contemporary case study for political violence, with survivors full of trauma, stress, and anxieties who had no adequate mental healthcare system, but showed resilience and growth. The interventions they had were no less than those offered through any world mental healthcare system, but so limited that only a few hundred mental healthcare practitioners were available for 240 million population. The alternative cultural practices are usually not termed as mental healthcare but instead referred to as supplementary support system. The argument here is that what if the primary system, i.e. Mental Healthcare System, is not functional or adequate? What else the family support does if it is not performing the primary role as an alternative mental healthcare intervention? The people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa survived and absorbed all the shocks of terror in the most resilient manner. Yet the world gets no visuals of (abnormal) intellectually disabled people on the streets, which could be expected with presence of such violence, inadequate healthcare, and high population indicators in any world society in the global north. Though there are reports that tolerance in Pakistan is reduced, and the community is radicalized but there are many other reasons for this kind of behavioral patterns.  The efficient role played by family and kinship, peers, and spirituality is a case study for global testing and generalization, placed for critics to analyze. The study reveals that identification of illness, referrals, initial care and support, counselling in the isolation phase, enhancing self-confidence, supporting the world view transformation, and emotional healing are all provided through family, kinship, and peers, adequately forcing the mental healthcare system to serve as supplementary consideration of the victims of violence.