2008 Embassy Events
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Bonnie Miller meets Vera Bebo who was displaced from the village of Achabeti. (Photo by Ana Kurdgelashvili.)
American Social Worker Offers Psycho-Social Crisis Intervention Training
Licensed clinical social worker, professor of Social Work and Psychology, and IIP speaker, Bonnie Miller, presented one-week of train-the-trainer seminars and workshops to Georgian mental health professionals in response to Georgia's IDP crisis in the wake of the Georgian-Russian conflict in August. Down from a peak of over 180,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) immediately after the conflict, officials now estimate that 30,000 IDPs, including 10,000 school-age children, have been permanently displaced from their homes in South Ossetia, and are currently living in schools, kindergartens, and other make-shift shelters in Tbilisi and Gori. Miller's training - to include sessions on helping adults and children in crisis, solution-focused brief therapy, and help-for-the-helpers training - will provide Georgian mental health practitioners with the tools they need to train others in psycho-social intervention for IDPs and others affected by the conflict. Miller comes to Georgia after extensive experience working in Bosnia and Kosovo.
