Posts tagged mental health
Turkey: Mental Health Support Helps Earthquake Survivors Cope
Three months after two earthquakes hit Van province, eastern Turkey, survivors are trying to get back to normality. Children are back at school and shops and markets are open again. But most people are still living in tents or metal containers, and it is difficult for them to recover from their traumatic experiences.
MSF, in collaboration with the Turkish organization Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (hCa), is helping people cope through a mental health program.
In addition to providing mental health support, MSF, in collaboration with Turkish organizations Hayata Destek and hCa and local authorities, has distributed 2,000 winterized tents and 2,000 cooking kits for 12,000 people in 37 villages in Van province.
Photo: Turkey 2011 © Knut Maehlumshagen
An MSF psychiatrist conducts a training session with psychologists in Misrata. MSF continues to provide medical care to migrants, internally displaced persons, and prisoners in the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Misrata. MSF teams are also running a mental health program after many months of violence in the country.
Libya: After War, MSF’s Medical Work Still Sorely Needed
Photo: Libya 2011 © Benoit Finck/MSF
Two months after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit northeast Japan, a team of MSF Japanese psychologists are continuing to work with survivors as government-led recovery efforts expand across the region.
MSF has also designed, provided materials for, and managed the construction of a temporary housing shelter for 30 people in Baba-Nakayama in Miyagi prefecture. Completed May 4, the temporary shelter will alleviate overcrowded conditions at the town’s main center, thereby strengthening infection control and decreasing stress-related disorders among evacuees.
Photo: Japan 2011 © Yozo Kawabe/MSF
Mental health care, a core part of MSF's emergency aid
An interesting article from our MSF Canada office about how mental health care integrates into our emergency medical aid.
I’ve had women telling me how they were having dinner with their families when someone burst in and shot their husband in front of their eyes. Others have lost family members or witnessed violence. Some of the youth were tortured. All these memories are often very vivid in their minds.
Madina Bukhari, MSF counselor
MSF’s Kashmir radio soap opera - MSF Weekly Podcast
“Alaw Baya Alaw” - Kashmiri for “Hello Brother, Hello” - has been on the air in the Kashmir Valley since 2005. Its purpose is to raise awareness of mental health issues in an entertaining way.
In Kashmir, mental health care during a surge of violence - MSF Weekly Podcast
The Kashmir Valley has been in the midst of increasing civil unrest since June. Violent, deadly clashes between protestors and security forces have led to strict 24-hour curfews and an even more pronounced military presence on the streets, the combination of which has kept people from accessing much-needed mental health care. MSF has been providing psychological care in Kashmir since 2002 and since June the team has had to adjust its strategy to in order to reach those who need help the most.
Jammu and Kashmir: Mental Health Activities Halted Due to Violence, Curfews
MSF halted mental health activities in the Kashmir Valley due to increasing violence & a new curfew.
There is little institutional recognition of the impact of forced displacement in Colombia and very few specialized services available to the displaced themselves. In Caqueta, which was been deeply affected by conflict, there is only one operational mental health program and only one psychiatrist to serve the population.
Colombia 2010 © MSF
In Colombia, stigmatization silences many people who have been affected by the conflict, preventing recognition of their condition and undermining their sense of belonging in their communities.
Colombia 2010 © MSF
Between March 2005 and September 2009, MSF counseled more than 5,000 patients in Caquetá. Nearly half had been caught in fighting between armed groups or endured threats, injury to themselves or family members, forcible recruitment, and displacement. The picture above, drawn by a young MSF patient, depicts a boat laden with dead bodies.
People in Caqueta are often victimized three times over by the region’s armed conflict, subjected to wanton violence, neglected by authorities, and stigmatized by the silence that greets their misery.
Colombia 2007 © Juan Carlos Tomasi
Caquetá Department is Colombia’s southern gateway to the Amazon, and it has been a focal point of the country’s ongoing conflict. Threats, murders, forced disappearances and displacement, as well as confinement and restrictions on movement are some of the dangers that civilians here face.
Colombia 2007 © Juan Carlos Tomasi
A displaced family takes refuge at Matala camp in Faradje, Haut Uélé, in Orientale Province. The areas of Haut-Uélé and Bas-Uélé in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been prey to violence and armed conflict since late 2008.
Pierre Kernen, who coordinated MSF’s activities in Niangara between August 2009 and April 2010, describes the situation for the populations in the region and the challenges to humanitarian aid in this article: Northeastern DRC: Many Challenges Remain
DRC 2009 © Miguel Cuenca
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Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization working in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
