Psychosocial care for victims of Colombia's armed conflict (Ley 1448 de 2011, PAPSIVI)

Fundamental

Victims of the armed conflict have a right to psychosocial and health rehabilitation; nurses give trauma-informed care and link them to PAPSIVI.

Updated Nov 13, 2026

Key points

Ley 1448 de 2011, art. 3: victims are people harmed by violations linked to the armed conflict from 1 January 1985, and in some cases their close relatives.
Art. 135: rehabilitation covers legal, medical, psychological and social measures to restore physical and psychosocial conditions.
Art. 137 (modified by Ley 2421 de 2024): PAPSIVI is proactive, individual, family and community, free of charge and interdisciplinary, with nurses named in its teams.
PAPSIVI has two components: psychosocial care and comprehensive health care, guided by MinSalud's protocol of comprehensive health care with a psychosocial approach.
Trauma-informed care: safety, trust and transparency, peer support, collaboration, empowerment and choice, and attention to culture, history and gender.
The law's validity was extended to 10 June 2031 (Ley 2078 de 2021). Official text checked on 2026-11-13 at secretariasenado.gov.co.

What it is

Ley 1448 de 2011 (the Victims and Land Restitution Law) recognises the rights of people harmed by the internal armed conflict and includes rehabilitation as a form of reparation. Its article 137 created the Programme of Psychosocial Care and Comprehensive Health for Victims (PAPSIVI), run by the Ministry of Health with two components: psychosocial care, and comprehensive physical and mental health care. Nurses meet victims in every service: displaced families, survivors of violence, relatives of disappeared people, former child recruits. The nurse's role is trauma-informed care that avoids re-traumatising, detection of mental-health needs and risk, and linkage with PAPSIVI and the health route.

Key points

Victims include people abroad, members of the security forces harmed in the terms of the law, and children who were unlawfully recruited and left the groups as minors (art. 3).
The psychosocial support must last as long as the victims need it and take gender, ethnic, social and cultural factors into account (art. 136).
PAPSIVI must give quality care with trained staff, especially for victims of sexual violence, and has special mechanisms for children orphaned by the conflict (art. 137).
MinSalud Res. 1166 de 2018 sets guidelines for the staff who guide and assist victims.

Components

The legal frame: Ley 1448 de 2011 and its changes (Ley 2078 de 2021, Ley 2421 de 2024).
PAPSIVI: psychosocial component and comprehensive health component.
Trauma-informed care in every service.
Detection, first support and referral by the nurse.

What it is for

To guarantee victims the right to rehabilitation as part of comprehensive reparation.
To ease emotional suffering, support physical and mental recovery and help rebuild the social fabric of communities.
To give nurses a route: detect, support, refer to PAPSIVI and follow up.
To make health services safe places that do not re-traumatise.

In nursing practice

Ask about experiences of violence privately and only as far as needed for care; let the person decide what to tell.
Explain each procedure before touching and offer choices: control reduces arousal and re-traumatisation.
Screen for depression, post-traumatic stress, substance use and suicide risk, and refer to mental-health services when needed.
After a recent crisis, offer humane, practical support (psychological first aid) that respects dignity, culture and abilities.
Inform the person about PAPSIVI and the victims' route, and coordinate with social work and the territorial health entity.

Common mistakes

Making a victim retell the events in detail at every contact.
Treating fear, anger or mistrust as lack of cooperation.
Ignoring the ethnic, rural and gender context of the harm.
Not referring to PAPSIVI because the person did not ask.

Test yourself

Think of the answer, then tap the question to see it.

Which article of Ley 1448 de 2011 created PAPSIVI?

Article 137 (modified by Ley 2421 de 2024): the Programme of Psychosocial Care and Comprehensive Health for Victims, run by the Ministry of Health.

What are PAPSIVI's two components?

Psychosocial care, for psychosocial harm, and comprehensive health care, for physical and mental health.

Which three principles of trauma-informed care can you name?

Safety; trustworthiness and transparency; collaboration and mutuality. Others are peer support, empowerment and choice, and cultural, historical and gender issues.

Until when does Ley 1448 de 2011 apply?

Until 10 June 2031, after the extension made by Ley 2078 de 2021.

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Educational content for students; it does not replace your institution's protocols, supervised clinical training or a prescriber's order. Dose-calculation examples use made-up numbers: they are educational, not a clinical order.

Sources: Ley 1448 de 2011 (Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de Tierras), texto vigente: arts. 3, 135–138 y 208 (Secretaría General del Senado de la República de Colombia, 2011); Programa de atención psicosocial y salud integral a víctimas (PAPSIVI) (Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social, Colombia, 2026); Nursing: Mental Health and Community Concepts, 15.3: Trauma-informed care (Open RN, Wisconsin Technical College System (CC BY 4.0), LibreTexts, 2022); Psychological first aid: guide for field workers (World Health Organization, War Trauma Foundation and World Vision International, 2011).

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