NSW Health Disaster Mental Health, handbook 3
The Disaster Mental ...hlight medbox">Health Manual and associated handbooks are intended as a resource for mental health staff who are seeking background information and practical guidance and resources to assist in a disaster mental health response.
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UNHCR’s Public Health Strategy 2021-2025 is based on the lessons learnt, and builds on the achievements, of the Global Strategy for Public ...class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">Health 2014-2018.
Progress was made on policies favouring inclusion and integration into national systems3 with 92% of 48 operations surveyed reporting refugees having access to national primary health care facilities under the same conditions as nationals and 96% reporting refugees having access to all relevant vaccines under the same conditions as nationals. While many refugee hosting countries have policies that allow refugees to access national health services, many face partial access, prohibitive out-of-pocket expenditures and other barriers including distance to facilities, language and provider acceptance. Furthermore, more work is needed on strengthening these systems to be able to meet the needs of both host communities and refugees.
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We need to be concerned about mental health in the context of climate change
Psychosocial support is a very important component in Gender Based Violence response that provide appropriate care, protection and social integrat...ion. Psychological aspects affect thoughts, emotions, behavior, memory, learning ability, perceptions and understanding. While the social aspects have effects on relationships, often shaped by traditions, culture ,values, family and community, but also include one’s status in the community and economic wellbeing. These have different effects on the women, men, boys and girls as victims /survivors and perpetuators.
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Broken Links: Psychosocial support for people separated from family members (Training
module) and...n> the corresponding Broken Links field guide are designed to support staff and
volunteers in a wide range of settings where they may be in contact with families who have
been separated from their loved ones. The field guide and the training module outline the
causes and consequences of being separated from family members, as well as the types of
contact staff and volunteers might have with families affected by separation.
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Practical considerations
It provides more detailed and practical guidance for continuing services for each life stage across the life-course conti...nuum. As such, both documents should be read and used together. The countries in South-East Asia and the Pacific regions would like to adapt the guidance within the national and sub-national continuity plans, based on the local situation of COVID-19 transmission, containment response and health system capacity.
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Guidance for General Medical and Specialised Mental Health Care Settings
The report reveals weak national mental health services overburdened by the demands placed on them by the Syria crisis. Health facilities which pre...viously provided integrated mental health services in Syria have themselves become casualties of war, with most either destroyed, damaged or not functioning. The shortage of trained mental health care providers is viewed as critical, both in Syria and in the neighboring countries where refugees now reside. Strengthening and expanding these services is crucial for Syria’s longer term recovery because the need for treatment will last for years after the war ends.
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This evaluation report of UNICEF’s Psychosocial Support Response for Syrian Children in Jordan was conducted by
Antares Foundation team (Alberti...en van der Veen, Reem AbuKishk, Shadi Bushnaq, Orso Muneghina, Reem Rawdha
and Tineke van Pietersom) under the supervision of guidance Farhod Kamidov, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer
and Muhammad Rafiq Khan, Child Protection Specialist (CPiE).This is achieved through community-supported child and
adolescent friendly spaces (CFSs)1 and community-based
child protection mechanisms and processes. Currently,
in its fourth year of operation as part of the Syria crisis,
UNICEF considers it an opportune moment to take stock
of the programme’s overall effectiveness to date and in so
doing to inform its future.
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This study complements the growing amount of research on the psychosocial impact of war on chil-dren in Sierra Leone by examining local perceptions of child mental ...t medbox">health, formal and informal care systems, help-seeking behaviour and stigma
Yoder et al. Int J Ment Health Syst (2016) 10:48 DOI 10.1186/s13033-016-0080-8
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The new guide provides practical, first-line management recommendations for mental, neurological and substance use conditions. Contents include mod...ules on assessing and managing conditions such as acute stress, grief, moderate-severe depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy, and harmful use of alcohol and drugs.
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The document introduces a simple classification, minimums standards and a registration form for Foreign Medical Teams (FMTs) that may provide surgical and... trauma care arriving within the aftermath of a sudden onset disaster. These can serve as tools to improve the coordination of the foreign medical team response, and be the reference for registration on arrival as well as a possible global registration mechanism similar to what exists for urban search and rescue teams
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This guide focuses on three main areas: how to support a person whose condition warrants home care because of non-severe symptoms and home care is recommended by local jurisdictions; how to prevent ...the spread of COVID-19 in the home; and how to provide emotional support to family members. While this manual provides information on danger signs of COVID-19, it should not be used as a guide for when and how a person who has COVID-19 (or its symptoms) should seek medical care. All content adapted to different countries should reflect local policy guidelines and recommendations.
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Emergencies, in spite of their tragic nature and adverse effects on mental health, are unparalleled opportunities to build better ...ibute-to-highlight medbox">mental health systems for all people in need. This WHO publication shows how this was done in 10 diverse emergency-affected areas
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Child friendly spaces (CFS) are safe spaces where
communities create nurturing environments in which
children can access free and structured play and
learning activities. CFS, also commonly refer...red to
as Child Centred Spaces or Safe Spaces for Children,
may provide educational and psychosocial support
and other activities that restore a sense of normality
and continuity for children whose lives have been
disrupted by war, natural disaster or other emergency
situations.
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This guide is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese
This guide consolidates COVID-19 guidance for human resources for... health managers and policy-makers at national, subnational and facility levels to design, manage and preserve the workforce necessary to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and maintain essential health services.
The guide identifies recommendations to protect, support and empower health workers at individual, management, organizational and system levels.
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Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, was devastated by an earthquake in 2010. The disaster uncovered the realities of a non-existent mental health care system with only ten psychiatrist...s nationwide. Attempts were made to assess the increased prevalence of mental illness, likely due to the trauma to which many were exposed. Several interventions were carried out with aims to integrate mental health into primary health care services. The interplay between socio-cultural beliefs and health (both mental and physical) in Haiti has been widely commented upon by both foreign aid and local caregivers. Observations frequently highlight barriers to the willingness of patients to seek care and to their acceptance of biomedicine over traditional Vodou beliefs. The perception of Haitian beliefs as barriers to the availability and acceptance of mental health care has intensified the difficulty in providing effective recommendations and interventions both before and after the earthquake. Argued in this review is the importance of considering the interactions between socio-cultural beliefs and mental health when developing models for the prevention, screening, classification and management of mental illness in Haiti. These interactions, especially relevant in mental health care and post-disaster contexts, need to be acknowledged in any healthcare setting. The successes and failures of Haiti’s situation provide an example for global consideration.
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Refugees and migrants face similar health threats from COVID-19 as their host populations. However, inadequate access to essential services and exc...lusion may makes early detection, testing, diagnosis, contact tracing and seeking care for COVID-19 difficult for refugees and migrants thus increasing the risk of outbreaks in these population and presenting an additional threat to public health. This document offers guidance to Member States and partners for the inclusion of refugees and migrants, as part of holistic efforts to respond to COVID-19 epidemics in the general populations.
17 April 2020
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