“There is no health without mental health.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres reaffirmed this simple but powerful message in May 2020.[1] In a timely effort to sound the alarm, he cautioned that a global upsurge in the prevalence and severity of…
We had not expected to be publishing yet another issue of FMR under COVID-19 restrictions – and to be welcoming new Co-Editor Alice Philip to the team without even being able to meet in person! But thanks to the collaboration…
The earliest use of the term ‘psychosocial’ in the context of forced migration that I have found is by Hertha Kraus in a 1939 Special Issue of the The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.[1] Her…
Many people living in areas affected by violence and conflict experience a negative impact on their mental health, and one in five develop a mental health condition, which is much higher than for populations not affected by conflict.[1] Affected people…
Refugees in Egypt, like those across the world, struggle to find an adequate quality of life. Asylum seekers come to Egypt hoping that their stay will be temporary, they will be cared for by UNHCR and they will be resettled…
Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) programmes’ effectiveness in alleviating mental health and psychosocial burdens is contingent on multiple factors, including socio-cultural relevance to the local population.[1] Culture bias – which entails interpreting, judging or acting based on one’s own…
In conflict-affected and forced displacement contexts, education provides life-saving and sustaining skills. Formal and non-formal schools are important sites for delivering mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to affected children and youth, and teachers are at the centre of this…
Effective mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in response to humanitarian emergencies connects with the worldviews, healing practices and language of the people it aims to assist. Faith is a factor in many individuals’ and communities’ capacity to cope with…
“Prayer was the rope of survival.” “Religious needs are my primary needs.” “I wish I had been asked.” These statements were shared by displaced women in Iraq, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey in three independent, coordinated research studies in 2019 led…
There is increasing recognition of the need for cultural mediation – an approach that goes beyond purely providing translation or interpreting services – to meet the needs of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.[1] Cultural mediators work with a wide variety…