{"id":2261,"date":"2026-05-31T06:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/?p=2261"},"modified":"2026-05-31T06:16:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:16:27","slug":"longitudinal-randomized-comparison-study-on-the-community-resiliency-model-for-addressing-mental-health-challenges-in-survivors-and-perpetrators-of-genocide-in-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/?p=2261","title":{"rendered":"Longitudinal randomized comparison study on the community resiliency model for addressing mental health challenges in survivors and perpetrators of genocide in Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"<header id=\"heading\" class=\"heading\">\n<div id=\"full-view-heading\" class=\"full-view\">\n<div class=\"inline-authors\">\n<div class=\"authors\">\n<div class=\"authors-list\"><span class=\"authors-list-item \"><a class=\"full-name\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/?term=Habimana+S&amp;cauthor_id=41575623\" data-ga-category=\"search\" data-ga-action=\"author_link\" data-ga-label=\"Samuel Habimana\">Samuel Habimana<\/a><sup class=\"affiliation-links\"><span class=\"author-sup-separator\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"affiliation-link\" title=\"School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University (LLU), Loma Linda, CA, USA. shabimana@llu.edu.\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/41575623\/#full-view-affiliation-1\"> 1 <\/a><span class=\"author-sup-separator\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"affiliation-link\" title=\"Rwanda Resilience and Grounding Organization (RRGO), Kigali, Rwanda. shabimana@llu.edu.\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/41575623\/#full-view-affiliation-2\"> 2 <\/a><\/sup><span class=\"comma\">,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"authors-list-item \"><a class=\"full-name\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/?term=Lister+Z&amp;cauthor_id=41575623\" data-ga-category=\"search\" data-ga-action=\"author_link\" data-ga-label=\"Zephon Lister\">Zephon Lister<\/a><sup class=\"affiliation-links\"><span class=\"author-sup-separator\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"affiliation-link\" title=\"School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University (LLU), Loma Linda, CA, USA.\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/41575623\/#full-view-affiliation-3\"> 3 <\/a><\/sup><span class=\"comma\">,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"authors-list-item \"><a class=\"full-name\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/?term=Biracyaza+E&amp;cauthor_id=41575623\" data-ga-category=\"search\" data-ga-action=\"author_link\" data-ga-label=\"Emmanuel Biracyaza\">Emmanuel Biracyaza<\/a><sup class=\"affiliation-links\"><span class=\"author-sup-separator\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"affiliation-link\" title=\"Rwanda Resilience and Grounding Organization (RRGO), Kigali, Rwanda.\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/41575623\/#full-view-affiliation-4\"> 4 <\/a><span class=\"author-sup-separator\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"affiliation-link\" title=\"School of Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, Montreal, QC, Canada.\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/41575623\/#full-view-affiliation-5\"> 5 <\/a><\/sup><span class=\"comma\">,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"authors-list-item \"><a class=\"full-name\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/?term=Freeman+K&amp;cauthor_id=41575623\" data-ga-category=\"search\" data-ga-action=\"author_link\" data-ga-label=\"Kimberly Freeman\">Kimberly Freeman<\/a><sup class=\"affiliation-links\"><span class=\"author-sup-separator\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"affiliation-link\" title=\"School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University (LLU), Loma Linda, CA, USA.\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/41575623\/#full-view-affiliation-3\"> 3 <\/a><\/sup><span class=\"comma\">,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"authors-list-item \"><a class=\"full-name\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/?term=Montgomery+S&amp;cauthor_id=41575623\" data-ga-category=\"search\" data-ga-action=\"author_link\" data-ga-label=\"Susanne Montgomery\">Susanne Montgomery<\/a><sup class=\"affiliation-links\"><span class=\"author-sup-separator\">\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"affiliation-link\" title=\"School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University (LLU), Loma Linda, CA, USA.\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/41575623\/#full-view-affiliation-3\"> 3 <\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"short-article-details\">Affiliations<\/div>\n<ul id=\"full-view-identifiers\" class=\"identifiers\">\n<li><span class=\"identifier pubmed\"> <span class=\"id-label\"> PMID: <\/span> <strong class=\"current-id\" title=\"PubMed ID\">41575623<\/strong> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"identifier pmc\"> <span class=\"id-label\"> PMCID: <\/span> <a class=\"id-link\" href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC12909630\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-ga-category=\"full_text\" data-ga-action=\"PMCID\"> PMC12909630 <\/a> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"identifier doi\"> <span class=\"id-label\"> DOI: <\/span> <a class=\"id-link usa-link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s44192-026-00376-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" aria-label=\"external, opens in new tab. 10.1007\/s44192-026-00376-w\" data-ga-category=\"full_text\" data-ga-action=\"DOI\"> 10.1007\/s44192-026-00376-w <\/a> <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"abstract\" class=\"abstract\">\n<h2 class=\"title\">Abstract<\/h2>\n<div id=\"eng-abstract\" class=\"abstract-content selected\">\n<p><strong class=\"sub-title\"> Background: <\/strong> In a post-genocide context, mental health disorders among Rwandan genocide survivors and released perpetrators remain a critical concern. To date, no study has evaluated the effectiveness of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) skills in addressing the mental health needs of both groups simultaneously. This study assessed the impact of CRM when delivered to a combined group of survivors and perpetrators, compared to groups trained separately.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sub-title\"> Methods: <\/strong> A total of 152 participants were recruited from Nyamagabe district, Rwanda. Participants were assigned into three groups including genocide survivors (n = 51), released genocide perpetrators (n = 51), and a combined group of both survivors and perpetrators (n = 50). Data were collected at three points: pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and six months post-intervention using validated psychometric scales for anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), emotional dysregulation, and anger. Repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc tests were used to analyze changes over time. A statistical significance of p &lt; 0.005 and p &lt; 0.001 was applied.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sub-title\"> Results: <\/strong> Our findings showed significant reduction of anxiety (F = 20.17, p &lt; 0.001), depression (F = 37.03, p &lt; 0.001), anger (F = 95.97, p &lt; 0.001), and emotional dysregulation (F = 76.68, p &lt; 0.001) across all groups of participants. These positive changes were sustained at 6 months post-intervention for anxiety, depression, anger, and emotional dysregulation. In contrast, PTSD symptoms only showed a slight, non-significant reduction over time (F = 0.59, p = 0.44). Additionally, there were no significant differences in outcomes between groups that received the intervention separately (survivor-only or perpetrator only) and those that received it in mixed survivor-perpetrator groups.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sub-title\"> Conclusion: <\/strong> Although the CRM intervention does not replace psychotherapy, it produced lasting and positive effects on mental health symptoms among both genocide survivors and perpetrators, particularly in reducing anxiety, depression, and emotional dysregulation. Importantly, outcomes did not differ whether the intervention was delivered to separate or combined groups. A randomized controlled trial is recommended to further evaluate the long-term effects of CRM on community healing and cohesion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong class=\"sub-title\"> Keywords: <\/strong> Community resiliency model; Mental health symptoms; Post-genocide; Released genocide perpetrators; Survivors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"copyright\" class=\"copyright\">\u00a9 2026. The Author(s).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Samuel Habimana\u00a0 1 \u00a0 2 ,\u00a0Zephon Lister\u00a0 3 ,\u00a0Emmanuel Biracyaza\u00a0 4 \u00a0 5 ,\u00a0Kimberly Freeman\u00a0 3 ,\u00a0Susanne Montgomery\u00a0 3 Affiliations PMID: 41575623 PMCID: PMC12909630 DOI: 10.1007\/s44192-026-00376-w Abstract Background: In a post-genocide context, mental health disorders among Rwandan genocide survivors and Read More &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crm_skills","category-research-center"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"rrgo","author_link":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/?cat=1\" rel=\"category\">CRM Skills<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/?cat=32\" rel=\"category\">Research Center<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Samuel Habimana\u00a0 1 \u00a0 2 ,\u00a0Zephon Lister\u00a0 3 ,\u00a0Emmanuel Biracyaza\u00a0 4 \u00a0 5 ,\u00a0Kimberly Freeman\u00a0 3 ,\u00a0Susanne Montgomery\u00a0 3 Affiliations PMID: 41575623 PMCID: PMC12909630 DOI: 10.1007\/s44192-026-00376-w Abstract Background: In a post-genocide context, mental health disorders among Rwandan genocide survivors and Read More ...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2262,"href":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261\/revisions\/2262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rrgo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}