Exploring Mental Health and Community Responses in El Salvador

Summer 2012: May 14 to June 1 (tentative dates)

Program Location

El Salvador is a country of beauty – Pacific coast beaches, mountains, friendly people, volcanoes, flowing fields of sugar cane – and a country of challenges – low literacy/ education rates, gang violence, poverty, large differences between the poor and wealthy, and a history of tragic civil war.

The student group will spend most of the time in two locations, with a mental health program in the capital of San Salvador and with a community- based development program in the poor rural town of San Martin. Tours will also be made of nearby towns and the coastal beach.

• Program director Cynthia Hunter lived and worked in San Martin, El Salvador from 1995-2000.  She maintains community and organizational connections in the areas of mental health and education.
• Adjunct faculty Sam Nickels lived in El Salvador for 5 years and has traveled to the country annually for the last 10 years to support mental health, community development and education programs.

Academic Program

The mental health and community responses in El Salvador study abroad program will focus on learning about how mental health services are provided in the challenging context of El Salvador.  The influence of culture, socio-economic realities, history and global relations on the provision of psychological and social services will be explored.

Instruction in USA and in-country will involve lecture, readings, sharing of stories by guest speakers, film/videos, and group work. Process/discussion days will include self-reflection exercises and group discussion. Students will be asked to keep a journal and write a final paper that both summarizes their personal learning experiences and takes knowledge gained and applies it to their major discipline and potential for future work. Guided tours and visits to tourist sites are also included to gain a broader cultural and historical appreciation of the country and its people. Students will spend two days in community service in two different projects. Offices at ACISAM and in San Martin will be used as facilities. Students will be assessed based on quality and quantity of journaling, participation in all daily activities, and final paper.

Summary: 21 days (3 weeks)
Begin with 5 days of orientation at JMU in Harrisonburg, Virginia, May 14-17  
Classroom work at JMU

Travel to El Salvador (travel day)
5 days with ACISAM, a community mental health program, in San Salvador.

• Day 7: orientation to ACISAM and their mental health work
• Day 8: meet with family leaders who are participating in a family support program.  Learn about their experiences with community mental health
• Day 9: orientation to mental health system in El Salvador, and comparative look at such systems in developed and developing countries, discussion of cultural influences/differences in the social work and psychology fields in different countries
• Day 10: tour of country’s psychiatric hospital, social security hospital psych unit, and local health units that provide mental health services
• Day11: service day with SMI family members of ACISAM program who participate in the art therapy program for person with severe mental illness
• Day 12: Cultural exposure,  tourist sites of the capital city including Archbishop Romero church
• Day 13: process/discussion day – summarizing, analyzing, synthesizing what has occurred and been learned to date, how it applies to work settings in the USA 5 days with IDDC- local church  in San Martin
• Day 14: travel to San Martin, orientation to IDDC program in the context of a poor community in a developing country: community development, leadership development, politics/advocacy, nonprofits and social service, Freire model of empowerment, etc.
• Day 15-16: tour San Martin community, discussion with residents of challenges faced
• Day 17: tourist destinations – Suchitoto, pieradrera swimming hole, market in San Martin, farm
• Day 18: day of service with youth in San Martin
• Day 19: return to San Salvador for second day of in-country process/discussion to summarize, analyze, synthesize experiences to date
• Day 20 visit beach tourist site on Salvador coast
• Day 21 return to USA (travel day)

Tentative Courses:
SOWK 487: Mental Health and Community Responses in El Salvador (3)

Accommodations

Students will reside in hotels and group meals will be provided. Housing will be in a guest house which will provide breakfast.  Other meals will be in small diners or in the homes of people in San Martin. Students will carry bottled water. A cell phone will be purchased and maintained by faculty leader. Internet cafes will be available sporadically. Conventional US cell phone plans would not work in El Salvador. 

U.S. citizens must present a current U.S. passport and either a Salvadoran visa or a one-entry tourist card. The tourist card may be obtained from immigration officials for a ten-dollar fee upon arrival in country at an airport

Program Costs

For the current projected costs for this program, please click on the following link to the Fees for JMU Study Abroad Programs page.

Application

For more detailed instructions and to download the application, please click on the following link to the Applications and Forms section for JMU Short-Term Programs.

A personal interview will be required. To be eligible, students must be able to have a conversation in spanish.

For More Information

For additional information about the JMU program in El Salvador, please contact the program director:

Cynthia Hunter
Assistant Professor
Social Work Department
E-mail: hunterca@jmu.edu  
Tel.: 540-568-1737