The phenomena of child soldiers can be found manifesting in situations of horizontal inequalities between groups with clearly defined cultural or ethnic identities. In war and violent conflict, children are traumatized by such common experiences as frequent shelling, bombing, helicopter strafing, round-ups, cordon-off and search operations, deaths, injury, destruction, mass arrests, detention, shootings, grenade explosions, and landmines. The impact of war on their growing minds, and the resulting traumatization and brutalization, is decisive in making them more likely to become child soldiers. Apart from death and injury, the recruitment of children becomes even more abhorrent when one sees the psychological consequences. Reintegration of the former child soldiers can be challenging. Some children have no families; either they have fled the country or they have been killed in the war. Child soldiers often face psychological and social problems.

This chapter attempts to attain consensus on some key questions in the field of debriefing, derived from a consensus conference held in 1996 in Australia. The Debriefing Consensus Forum brought together senior Australasian academics, practitioners and researchers to discuss traumatic stress debriefing. Providing debriefing to those who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic incident remains a controversial issue for mental health professionals. There was a consensus view that those conducting debriefing should be knowledgeable and skilled mental health professionals. Although debriefing may have effect on long-term psychological consequences of traumatic exposure, it may have an effect on short-term outcomes. Participants agreed that the promise of debriefing as a potential preventive intervention in mental health should not be abandoned, despite the limitations and inconsistency of the evidence supporting its effectiveness. The Forum highlighted the need for further research and suggested how future studies could make useful contributions to knowledge about debriefing.