Mental health outreach workers regularly visit community spaces, such as camps for internally displaced people, water points, and schools to seek out children and adolescents in need of care.
Depending on their age and mental health concerns, patients are then referred to psycho-stimulation classes (drawing, dancing, storytelling, etc.), family consultations, or talking group sessions.
Community outreach workers also organize education sessions for parents, other educators, and community leaders to strengthen their ability to identify warning signs in young people.
Malnutrition and mental health
In northern Cameroon, part of MSF’s work is focused on mental health care for patients recovering from injuries as well as those suffering from malnutrition.
While it is not certain that children are more likely to be malnourished if their caretaker – usually their mother – is dealing with a mental illness, once their mental health needs have been addressed, improvements in the child’s health are seen more quickly.
Our mental health teams work to reinforce the bonds between caretaker and child, encouraging psycho-stimulation sessions to tackle the developmental consequences of malnutrition.
Caretakers are also offered a safe space to discuss their worries and symptoms, as many of them have been victims of the conflict as well.
In Mora, northern Cameroon, MSF psychologists have heard many women talk about the fear they feel.
They fear sleeping inside , after having spent many nights sleeping in the bush with their children, hiding from nightly attacks.
The kind of support these women are now receiving can have a direct impact on the relationships they build with their children.
MSF has worked in the Lake Chad region since the beginning of the conflict in Nigeria in 2009, moving to other locations in neighboring countries when the conflict spread in 2014.
In 2017, MSF ran about 25 projects in the Lake Chad region, with more than 150 international staff and more than 2,000 national staff, including doctors, nurses, psychologists and counselors.
The teams carried out 400,000 outpatient consultations in northeastern Nigeria, 300,000 in Niger’s Diffa area, and 82,000 in northern Cameroon. Yet many people remain in insecure, temporary spaces, including camps in Nigeria, or in areas that MSF cannot access due to security issues.