Research & Consultancy

TPO’s Research Unit develops and conducts studies on a diverse range of mental health issues. Our research methods recognize and take into account the specific cultural context of Cambodia.

TPO’s research team is technically and financially supported by the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. It constitutes an integral part of our Monitoring, Evaluation & Research team and activities.

We also provide technical support and/or local context input into research projects of other organizations and academic institutions and their students who wish to undertake a research study in collaboration with TPO Cambodia.

Goals

Research:

To detect and document psychological problems among Cambodian people who experienced or witnessed traumatic events with the aim to inform about the impact of these events as well as to inform about TPO practices.

Monitoring & Evaluation:

To ensure all TPO programs are on track and in line with their expected outcomes. The M&E team also makes part of TPO’s quality control mechanisms for the delivery of our various services to our beneficiaries.

Ethical Research, our guiding principle

All research carried out by TPO Cambodia relating to any of its programs working with people who have psychosocial or psychological problems, follows the principles of ethical research:

• We respect the rights of participants involve in the study.
• All personal information is kept private and confidential.
• The result of the research and monitoring activities is always used to inform the practices which will benefit the targeted beneficiaries.
• All research and evaluation project are related to the Cambodian context.
• The results are shared with the public and used in publications.

Research & Consultancy Activities

• Conduct internal monitoring of every TPO project
• Develop research proposals
• Design research questionnaires
• Coordinate data collection and perform quality control of data collection
• Data analysis
• Writing research reports and articles for publication
• Provide technical support and/or local context input into research projects of other organizations and academic institutions and their students who wish to undertake a research study in collaboration with TPO Cambodia
• Provide training to data collectors to conduct interviews such as face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions.

Current research projects include:

• Randomized Control Trial on the Effect of TPO’s Pain School Treatment Protocol for Khmer Rouge Survivors (Research Project on TPO’s treatment protocol for Chronic Pain)
• Randomized Control Trial on the Effect of Testimonial Therapy Interventions for Khmer Rouge Survivors (Research Project on TPO’s culturally adapted Trauma Treatment)

Concluded research projects include:

• Validation of the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist 25 (HSCL-25).
• Narrative Exposure Therapy with Survivors of the Khmer Rouge: a culturally tailored intervention to address trauma inclusive and respectful of dominating cultural/religious beliefs and values.
• Ethno-cultural Responses to Trauma in Cambodia: ‘baksbat’ (‘broken courage’), a Cambodian construct of Post Traumatic Stress underpinned by Cambodian language, culture and history.
• Second generation effects of the Khmer Rouge genocide.
• Prolonged grief disorder three decades post loss in survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

See Research Publications & Reports for publications related to TPO Cambodia’s research.

For more info, please contact

Mrs. TAING Sopheap, Monitoring & Evaluation and Research Coordinator
+855 (0) 23 63 66 992
sopheap@tpocambodia.org