Mental Health

After two years, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is concluding its emergency intervention in one of Rio de Janeiro’s slums. MSF teams have treated thousands for the effects of the violence and hardship that persist in the capital’s favelas.

After the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was alerted to the gap in the provision of mental health care in Lebanon. After conducting an assessment, MSF launched a mental health project on the outskirts of Beirut in December 2008 to provide care to communities that generally consider mental health a private matter with a heavy social stigma.

Daisy Plana, a Philippine psychologist working for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has been providing mental health support to victims of the violent earthquake that hit Sumatra, Indonesia, on September 30, 2009, in the rural areas around the coastal city of Pariaman.

More than a week after several natural disasters in the East Asia and South Pacific regions, MSF mental health staff are beginning to train local counselors, as well as give direct psychological support.

Dr. Douglas Khaya, a psychologist in MSF's mental health program in Rio de Janeiro, with 2,000 consultations so far, describes life in one of Brazil's most violent favelas.

On May 12, 2008, a devastating earthquake hit Sichuan province, leaving more than 80,000 dead and 10 million homeless. One year on, displaced people who lost their families, homes, and jobs in the quake are still suffering from psychological disorders and are in need of support to rebuild their lives. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been continuing psychological care to the earthquake victims.

On May 2 last year, Nargis Cyclone destroyed everything in its path in the south of Myanmar. It left behind 140,000 dead and missing, as well as immense damage. To help those who survived cope with their grief and suffering, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have been providing mental health support to populations in the Irrawaddy delta for the past 10 months.

During the first two weeks of March, relatively few people seem to have been able to flee from the conflict-affected Vanni area in northern Sri Lanka. Communication with people inside the Vanni remains incredibly difficult, but accounts given by people who have managed to escape in recent days confirm that civilians remain trapped by the conflict and that it is practically impossible for them to leave as they risk being shot at.

MSF provides mental health counseling in Vavuniya for traumatized patients.

While many wounded people still require medical care, particularly surgical procedures or post-operative care, the population in the Gaza Strip is also in need of social and psychological assistance.

At the instruction of the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission and the Federal Ministry of Health, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) must close the mental health counseling component of its activities in South Darfur.

“In a large-scale disaster such as the Sichuan earthquake, you could find large unmet needs, says Tony Marchant, MSF's outgoing emergency coordinator in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. "But there are very few gaps; they are mainly in the fields of mental health, basic relief items, and shelter. MSF is trying to respond to these gaps.”

The Chinese government is now estimating that more than 5 million have been left homeless by the 8.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated parts of the country’s Sichuan province 12 days ago. A total of 34 MSF team members are now in the affected region and have been carrying out assessments, providing surgical and basic medical care, as well as mental health services, and donating tents and medicines to the relief effort. The local, regional, and national response has been enormous, but some of the needs, especially in the area of shelter, remain.

Dr. Rowan Gillies, International Council President of MSF, returned to the Darfur region of Sudan in October, more than two years after he worked there as a field doctor. He describes the current situation there and discusses the potential implications of humanitarian aid organizations calling for armed intervention in the region.

Allison Male is a 36-year-old British psychologist. She arrived in Pakistani-administered Kashmir just days after the October 8 earthquake struck and her task is to provide psychosocial support to survivors of the disaster. She has also worked with MSF in Liberia and Burundi. This story is from her diary.

Less than a week after the Asian earthquake of October 8, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) began to offer psychosocial care to traumatized survivors in northern Pakistan, the area worst hit by the disaster. Marise Denault, an MSF social worker and mental health specialist, explains the situation.

I first arrived in Aceh around three months ago in mid March. My role was to define a more long-term strategy now that we were out of the emergency phase.

Erika Seid, an American psychotherapist, spent ten months (March 2004 to January 2005) working with MSF to establish mental health services clinic in Kinkala, a town of six to ten thousand people, in the Pool region of the Republic of Congo.

Clinical psychologist Michael Michalik worked for MSF in the Gaza Strip for six months in late 2003 and early 2004. He is part of a mobile team that works with families most affected by the continuing violence.

When a massive earthquake struck the Indian state of Gujarat on January 26, 2001, MSF was ready to take action. An assessment team arrived on site the next day, and by February 5, MSF had flown in several medical teams and a total of 80 tons of relief supplies. The initial priority was first aid and surgical care for those injured.