Description

Overview of Chapters The current study focuses on healthcare professionals who work with victims of protracted conflict in Kashmir. This first chapter summarizes the present investigation and introduces readers to the key theoretical concepts that the present study aimed to explore. This chapter briefly highlights the historical roots and the psychological payoffs of the protracted Kashmir conflict and emphasizes the need for research attention in this geopolitical area, particularly among healthcare professionals. While introducing the key concepts of the present investigation, it provides a healthy and critical discussion on related concepts. For example, this chapter discusses issues related to the conceptualization of trauma and the changes made in DSM-5. It also exploresthe concept of posttraumatic stress disorder, its relation to secondary traumatic stress, and the various terms which have been confused with secondary trauma. This chapter further throws light on salutogenic aspects of trauma and provides a smooth discussion of vicarious posttraumatic growth in relation to other associated concepts. An overview of other chapters of the present study is given ahead. Chapter two discusses the main theoretical models of secondary traumatic stress and posttraumatic growth and on the basis of which a revised theoretical model for the present research was developed. The model offers a coherent description of variables that tend to be crucial to the understanding of the mechanism involved in the development of secondary traumatic stress symptoms and/or vicarious posttraumatic growth among healthcare professionals who deal with victims of protracted conflict.