Refugees Deliver Mental Health Services to Locked Down Camps in Iraq

Hivine Ali, a mental health and psychosocial support officer with UNHCR who coordinates with the team of 19 community workers, says their presence in the camps has helped the MHPSS unit continue delivering much needed mental health support during lockdown.

“We knew they were important before, but now the role of the community workers is even more important,” she says.

“We knew they were important before, but now the role of the community workers is even more important.”

While group activities at schools and community centres have had to stop, the community workers are still running awareness sessions at primary health care centres, where they also put on personal protective equipment (PPE) to do one-on-one counselling. Their work does not stop there, says Falak.

“I’m following up on cases that need further care on a personal basis, because we are all neighbours in here. I am doing this during working hours and after working hours when the neighbours visit, and we chat over tea.”

People with pre-existing conditions that have become more severe since the onset of the pandemic, such as obsessive compulsive disorders, often need to be referred to psychiatrists and psychologists for more specialised care. But the community workers are able to help those suffering from stress, anxiety or depression through their training in a psychological intervention developed by the World Health Organization called Problem Management+ (PM+).

“We ask them what they did in previous times to cope,” says Hivine. “Refugees really have gone back to the previous coping mechanisms they had. They experienced being restricted to the camp when they first arrived, and now they’re trying to deal with this.”

When the main source of distress is a loss of income and inability to put food on the table, the community workers can refer cases to NGOs and UN agencies who can help with food or cash assistance.

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For those the community workers cannot reach during lockdown, UNHCR has turned to a radio station based in Domiz 1 camp that broadcasts to local communities, including camp residents and internally displaced people. Every Wednesday, a clinical psychologist from UNHCR goes on air to share mental health tips and take calls from listeners.

Kawa says it is the only local programme he knows of that is dealing with the mental health consequences of the pandemic rather than its threat to public health.

Help is also available for the community workers themselves to ensure they are not over-burdened.

“We’re in contact with them on WhatsApp groups so we can see how things are, how they are,” says Hivine. “We make it clear that whenever they feel they need someone to talk to, we’re available.”

Kawa confirms that the self-care tips are “extremely helpful”.

“We need to help ourselves to help others,” he says.

*Asked that his last name not be used

Additional reporting and writing by Kristy Siegfried

*SOURCE: UNHCR. Go to ORIGINAL.
2020 Human Wrongs Watch