PRIORITIZING MENTAL HEALTH FOR PEOPLE AFFECTED BY ARMED CONFLICT AND WAR
Around two billion people are affected by fragility, conflict, or violence and by 2030 half of these people will live in extreme poverty. The UN estimates that 82.4 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced by violence, persecution, and conflict at the end of 2020.
As humanitarian organizations it is our duty to provide emergency support to those most in need and we strive to do so. But the gap between emergency relief efforts and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) has a long way to go to meet the needs of vulnerable populations affected by conflict and to sustain long-term peacebuilding efforts.
According to WHO one in five people affected by conflict are living with some form of mental disorder, from mild depression or anxiety to psychosis. And one in ten is living with a moderate or severe mental disorder.
Given the numbers of people affected by conflict and war, there is an urgent need for mental health interventions.
At Swisscross Foundation we believe that humanitarian emergency relief efforts in of themselves are only one important element of how to support and strengthen people affected by conflict. But we also believe that some wounds are invisible.
Swisscross Foundation is committed to take a more holistic approach to the care of victims of war and to the care of local healthcare professionals supporting humanitarian missions.
As an organization we are looking at ways to integrate our humanitarian efforts in reconstructive surgery while addressing mental health challenges faced by people affected by the trauma of conflict. There is an innate correlation between physical injury and how that affects people in their mental state. The physical, psychological, and social wounds that result from armed conflict and their long-term consequences are poorly understood by health professionals. Research is a necessity to identify and address their clinical and social impact; and to study the way people address their health needs.
For us, it is also essential to support healthcare staff and volunteers working with our foundation. One of our Founding Principles is to ‘protect’ health workers – not just their safety and security, but also their wellbeing.
In Kurdistan, where Swisscross Foundation is starting a new chapter in reconstructive surgery for vulnerable people, organisations like Nadia’s Initiative are highlighting the need for mental health support for the Yazidi community traumatized by war.
Globally organizations like Neem Foundation in Nigeria set up the Counselling on Wheels program – providing psychological and social services to people in some of the most remote parts of the country.
Others like Intisar Foundation provide drama therapy for women affected by war in the Middle East.
Supported by our partner, UAE Aid, Swisscross Foundation is committed to addressing ‘mental health in an unequal world’ as a part of our new humanitarian complex care program in Erbil, taking an integrated approach to healthcare provision, where we can look at investment, action and scaling up support for mental health services in Iraq and across areas brutalised by conflict.
