Mental Health Among Displaced People and Refugees: Making the Case for Action at The World Bank Group
“Forcibly displaced people’s mental health needs have often been neglected in response plans. Yet meeting these needs is critical to help displaced persons overcome trauma and rebuild their lives. Without appropriate mental health care, forcibly displaced people will often be unable to benefit fully from other forms of support that are provided to them. […] A shared commitment is needed from national and international actors to champion mental health parity in the provision of health and social services, including in humanitarian emergencies. High priority should go to identifying alternative sources of financing for mental health parity in health systems.”
https://www.mhinnovation.net/sites/default/files/downloads/resource/WBG_Web_MHDP_2017.pdf
TED Talk: Why I train grandmothers to treat depression
“Dixon Chibanda is one of 12 psychiatrists in Zimbabwe – for a population of more than 16 million. Realizing that his country would never be able to scale traditional methods of treating those with mental health issues, Chibanda helped to develop a beautiful solution powered by a limitless resource: grandmothers. In this extraordinary, inspirational talk, learn more about the friendship bench program, which trains grandmothers in evidence-based talk therapy and brings care, and hope, to those in need.”
Where There Is No Psychiatrist. A Mental Health Care Manual.
Where There Is No Psychiatrist – A Mental Health Care Manual. Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2018
“This practical manual of mental health care is vital for community health workers, primary care nurses, social workers and primary care doctors, particularly in low-resource settings. This guide gives the reader a basic understanding of mental illness by describing more than thirty clinical problems associated with mental illness and uses a problem-solving approach to guide the reader through their assessment and management. Mental health issues as they arise in specific contexts are described – in refugee camps, in school health programmes, as well as in mental health promotion.”
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/where-there-is-no-psychiatrist/47578A845CAFC7E23A181749A4190B54
Advancing the right to health: The vital role of law
This report aims to raise awareness about the role that the reform of public health laws can play in advancing the right to health and in creating the conditions for people to live healthy lives. By encouraging a better understanding of how public health law can be used to improve the health of the population, the report aims to encourage and assist governments to reform their public health laws in order to advance the right to health.
The report highlights important issues that may arise during the process of public health law reform. It provides guidance about issues and requirements to be addressed during the process of developing public health laws. It also includes case studies and examples of legislation from a variety of countries to illustrate effective law reform practices and some features of effective public health legislation.
PROBLEM MANAGEMENT PLUS (PM+): Individual psychological help for adults impaired by distress in communities exposed to adversity
With this manual, the World Health Organization (WHO) is responding to requests from colleagues around the world who seek guidance on psychological interventions for people exposed to adversity.
The manual describes a scalable psychological intervention called Problem Management Plus (PM+) for adults impaired by distress in communities who are exposed to adversity. Aspects of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) have been changed to make them feasible in communities that do not have many specialists. To ensure maximum use, the intervention is developed in such a way that it can help people with depression, anxiety and stress, whether or not exposure to adversity has caused these problems. It can be applied to improve aspects of mental health and psychosocial well-being no matter how severe people’s problems are.
The manual can be downloaded for free in 13 different languages here.
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/206417/WHO_MSD_MER_16.2_eng.pdf?sequence=1
Helsinki Committee
Helsinki Committees have begun to emerge after the signing of the Final Helsinki Act in May 1975. Presently, they exist in 34 countries. Its goal is to protect citizens through monitoring the fulfillment of governmental responsibilities regarding human rights and freedoms, as adopted by the country through international agreements.
The Resilience Programme for Young Men – A psychosocial handbook
The Resilience Programme for Young Men focuses specifically on the needs of young men, featuring activities that support increased self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-perception, all vital to psychosocial wellbeing. It aims to strengthen social interaction, creativity and peer support by encouraging good communication, group collaboration, mutual trust, respect, understanding and valuing of differences. These are key elements for young men in creating a better life for themselves and their communities.
Psychosocial and mental health interventions in areas of mass violence
These guidelines and the contribution to the Inter Agency Standing Committee Guidelines, Mental Health: Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings is written to share our technical experiences, to help colleagues and other humanitarian workers to avoid repeating the mistakes we have made. We do not claim that our intervention model is the only way to approach psychosocial or mental health problems in areas of conflict. We realise the limitations and opportunities of our organisations specific medical, humanitarian emergency origin as well as the specificity of our experiences.
https://www.msf.org/sites/msf.org/files/msf_mentalhealthguidelines.pdf
Helping Children After a Natural Disaster: Information for Parents and Teachers
Natural disasters can be especially traumatic for children and youth. Experiencing a dangerous or violent flood, storm, or earthquake is frightening even for adults, and the devastation to the familiar environment (i.e., home and community) can be long lasting and distressing .
Psychological First Aid for Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak
Ebola virus disease outbreaks have a significant impact on the wellbeing of those affected, their family, community members and the health workers treating people with Ebola. This guide focuses on, which involves humane, supportive and practical help to fellow human beings suffering serious crisis events. It is written for people who can help others experiencing an extremely distressing event.
http://www.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/131682/1/9789241548847_eng.pdf?ua=1