The Crisis of Bosnian Refugees in Australia: The Challenge for Psychiatry

these services have become overwhelmed with the demand. so that, tragically, a growing number of Bosnian families are being placed on a rapidly lengthening waiting list. Families attending for treatment pose a challenge to the attending mental health workers. The adult males, recently released from concentration camps, reveal horrendous tales of incarceration, starvation, overcrowding, torture and summary executions. The impact of the trauma is made worse by the knowledge that the perpetrators often were neighbours previously living side by side with the victims in ethnically mixed but peaceful villages. The rapid transition from peace to hostilities often within hours - remains incomprehensible to many of the victims.