Current Research Projects:

1. Longitudinal psychosocial assessment of verified minor and late recruits (VMLR) of Moist combatants during the reintegration process:  The successful rehabilitation of VMLR is an important step towards bringing a sustainable peace to the country. However, very less has been known on how communities perceive to the VMLR and vise versa and how VMLR’s personal characteristics and experiences during and after conflict affect their choices and attitudes toward re-integrating into society.

Various challenges and threats have been reported while re-integrating the ex-combatants in the community in other post-conflict nations. Lack of trust from others and family members were found one of the major challenges among Colombian former combatants, hence more psychosocial attention, more information about the process of re-integration, and activities to keep them busy were major recommendations of the combatants (Liliasa, 2007

In our context, VMLR were living and enjoying the collective cultural lives for long time before they formally released from the cantonment but after released from the camp, they are trying to reintegrate in the community and spending individual life however it has been difficult to most of the VMLR due to lack of the trust among families, relatives and communities and they are suffering from psychosocial, economic and sociopolitical problems in the community (TPO Nepal, Project report 2010).

In such a situation, TPO Nepal has conducted a longitudional assessment with 400 VMLRs to explore the current situation and perspective of VMLRs on re-integration process, protective and risk factors and monitor the progress of their psychosocial and mental health well-being over time during March-April, 2011.

2. An Assessment on Community Perception on Mobile Health Camp Services: TPO Nepal is the psychosocial partner on a UNICEF/UNFPA project to address cases of sexual violence committed during the conflict in 14 districts. The holistic approach combines information gathering with service delivery (legal, reproductive health and psychosocial support) in order to avoid re-traumatizing or stigmatizing survivors.

TPO Nepal has also conducted an assessment to explore the perception of beneficiaries and community members on mobile health camp services, to identify the linkage of psychosocial well-being and experience of other problems such as SGBV, reproductive health, legal and other form of exploitations. It was conducted in two districts Surkhet and Siraha. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used in the assessment.

3. Field Testing of HESPER Scale in Nepal: TPO Nepal, in collaboration with Kings College London, Healthnet TPO, UNHCR and WHO Geneva, field tested the HESPER (Humanitarian Emergency Situation Perceived Need) scale in Nepal. The scale measures the serious problems of adults living in humanitarian situations, based directly on their own views. The aim of the field test was to have a contextualized instrument to measure unmet needs in immediate post disaster and other humanitarian.

Past Research Projects:

1. Assessment of Substance Abuse among Bhutanese Refugees:

TPO Nepal conducted a substance abuse assessment among 8,501 Bhutanese Refugees in two refugee camps. The overall objective of the assessment was to identify the number of people using alcohol and engaging in hazardous drinking, in order to develop a multi-sectoral community based intervention to assist those who are found to have hazardous drinking habits and/or are dependent upon alcohol. The AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorder Identifi cation Test), developed by WHO, was used to identify problematic drinking. The overall prevalence rate of alcohol use was 14.4%. Among the alcohol users, nearly one-fi fth (19%) were found to be alcohol abusers based on the AUDIT cut off score, 41% were hazardous drinkers, more than one-fi fth had alcoholic dependence syndrome and average of 34.8% were harmful drinkers.

2. Psychosocial Assessment of Children in Burner, Pakistan:

TPO Nepal provided technical support for a psychosocial assessment of children in Buner, Pakistan in the areas of study design, training of research assistants, supervision of data collection, data entry, data analysis and report writing. The objective of the assessment was to identify the psychosocial and mental health status of children in this post-confl ict setting in order to inform interventions and program development to address their psychosocial and mental health needs. Of the total 300 children questioned, 10% met criteria for probable psychiatric disorders

3. Psychosocial Assessment of Urban Refugees in Kathmandu:

TPO Nepal, in collaboration with Fiona Thomas (Master’s student) from London School of Management, conducted a qualitative study on the coping mechanisms of Somali and Pakistani refugees living in Kathmandu. The study utilized individual interviews, focus groups and photo-voice methodology to examine the refugees’ experiences of displacement, with a focus on coping behaviour and aspects of resilience.