Co-Leaders:
Kathleen Allden, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School
Lynne Jones, Psychiatrist, International Medical Corps
Participants:
Zeinab Hijazi; James Strickler; Michael Wessells; Michael Grodin; Ruth Barron; Myron Belfer; Anne Scott; Ruth McClendon; Leslie Kadis; Kirsten Johnson; Anne Edgerton; Elizabeth Alderman; Stephen Alderman; Mesfin Tessema; Paul Bolton; Kimberlyn Leary; Giuseppe Raviola; Charles Vidich
State of the Art:
Mental Health and Psychological Support during humanitarian crises is an issue that has generated vigorous debate over the last decade. This is the first year that the Humanitarian Action Summit will address mental health and psychosocial concerns by including a new working group on this important topic. In late 2007, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee released minimum standards for intervention in the "IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies". Working Group 4 will build on the IASC framework and address important issues that are not addressed in the guidelines.
Objectives:
- Provide a forum for bridging the knowledge gap between emergency mental health and psychosocial support and the lessons learned about community mental health in the developing world;
- Examine how best to transition mental health and psychosocial programs from short term interventions during the emergency phase to programs that are appropriate for the longer phase of post-disaster/post-conflict development;
- Devise concrete ways to address funding constraints during program development so that providers of mental health and psychosocial programs can develop cost effective plans of intervention; and
- Propose ethical standards for conducting mental health and psychosocial research during emergencies.
Potential Deliverables:
- Develop an agenda to enhance collaboration and information sharing between the fields of community mental health in developing countries and humanitarian emergencies. Invite experts in mental health in developing countries to present examples of effective programs that could be relevant or adapted to the emergency context.
- Propose a structure for mental health and psychosocial program development during emergencies that can be adapted as more data is accumulated. Provide experienced new leaders the opportunity to present examples of effective programs in the field that are based on the evidence that we have accumulated thus far.
- Propose ethical standards for conducting mental health and psychosocial outcomes research in the field during humanitarian emergencies.
- Propose a means of developing core competencies that can be used in training programs for providers of mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies. Build collaborations between academic centers, NGO's, governmental and UN agencies, and donor agencies to focus on developing academic and field-based training programs.