[Psychosocial preventive work among war refugees. A task for primary health care?].

During the two first years of the war in Bosnia (1992-93) refugees came both to Norway and to other European countries. Bosnian "war refugees" are released prisoners from Serbian concentration camps, and their close families. Most of the former prisoners and their families had experienced extreme traumas, qualifying them for help from expert psychotherapists. No such help was available. The aim of the present project was to find out whether useful psychosocial preventive work can be done within the primary health services. Our intervention, which was carried out during a six month period in 1993-94, included two semi-structured interviews with each refugee family in the centre, and follow-up contacts with persons who indicated major psychological problems. All the refugees reported that they experienced deep sorrow, and the majority had difficulty in sleeping and concentrating. A pessimistic view of their future was common. Most of the refugees were positive towards participating in the interviews. Several of them have reported that the interviews were of direct help. In the majority of cases we have experienced that the ordinary health contacts later have been meaningful.