QRCS & WHO offer mental health support to Syrians affected by COVID-19

The representation office of the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) housed in Gaziantep, Turkiye will reportedly deploy three mobile mental health clinics in Syria.

Backed by the funding from the World Health Organization (WHO), QRCS will ensure that the COVID-19-affected people of North-western Syria are provided with adequate personnel for mental health rapid response. 

The primary goal of this project is to bring down mental morbidity and help improve the psychological conditions of the pandemic-affected population by expanding the portfolio of appropriate mental health and psychological support services.

Moreover, the project also plans to amplify the integration of mental health and psychological support services offered by the select primary health care facilities and mobile clinics.

Besides mental health care services, the project will focus on capacity building and accelerated knowledge transfer for the local staff and community health workers (CHWs) in line with current international standards, protocols, and guidelines set by the UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund), WHO, and UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund).

The six-month-long project will aid a total of 9,600 internally displaced persons (IDPs), along with the host communities spread across several parts of Northwestern Syria including Darkush, Salqin, and Al-Bab, and cater to 480 people with special needs.

WHO estimates suggest that one in 11 people living in an environment that has been exposed to conflict in the previous decade will showcase moderate to severe mental disorders.  

The QRCS-WHO initiative offers high-quality, inclusive, and culturally relevant mental health support services via three mobile mental health clinics deployed to address the local population -, both IDPs and host communities, where access to mental health services is lacking.

Meanwhile, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s (IASC) views represented through the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) suggest six interventions to improve mental health and psychological support response in the pandemic

IASC’s strategy emphasizes special attention to the elderly, children, and patients suffering from severe diseases, eliminating social stigma, and raising awareness on mental health issues as an upgraded COVID-19 response.

Source Credit: https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/27/06/2022/qrcs-who-help-syrians-affected-by-covid-19