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Mental health in humanitarian settings | Collections | MSF Science Portal

Complex humanitarian emergencies and other low-resource settings can be exceedingly difficult places to provide quality mental health (MH) care. Yet these environments also often have a high burden of mental health care needs.

This collection presents a set of articles describing how MSF teams have adapted and evaluated ways of bringing clinically impactful MH care to neglected communities and patients—from forcibly displaced populations in northern Nigeria to Syrian refugees in Lebanon and typhoon survivors in the Philippines. It also highlights work on developing new tools for providing clinical supervision and for identifying those patients most in need of care in fragile settings, and on new approaches to delivering MH services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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MSF Scientific Days Asia 2024

MSF Scientific Days Asia 2024 is a conference that presents research, innovation, and experiences from treatment and humanitarian programmes across Asia. MSF Scientific Days brings together researchers, practitioners, academics, and patient representatives with the aim to catalyse improvements in the quality of care provided to patients and populations at risk. This is a platform for experts in the humanitarian global health field to come together, collaborate, and discuss the current trends and challenges in innovation and healthcare. 

TB Research Dissemination Workshop 2022
TB Research Dissemination Workshop 2022

On June 30th-July 1, 2022 the research team at Epicentre in Mbarara, Uganda held a two-day workshop about their recent work to address gaps in tuberculosis diagnostics and therapeutics in low-income countries. Sessions included:


• Landscape of TB disease in Uganda: research gaps

• New diagnostic tools and algorithms in adults

• New diagnostic tools and algorithms in children

• Approaches to increasing pediatric TB detection and reducing disease burden

• TB chemotherapeutics

• Perspectives and challenges in TB


To catch up on the presentations, you can view the abstracts through the link below.

Neglected tropical diseases in 2023
Neglected tropical diseases in 2023

Each year hundreds of thousands of people die from a neglected tropical disease, while many more suffer serious illness or lifelong disability. Yet as we mark World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day on 30th January 2023, global progress towards eliminating these diseases is threatened by shifting global health priorities and declining investment in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.


The content collection linked below offers a snapshot of MSF’s work over the past two years on managing some of the most deadly NTDs, finding better tools and models of care for highly affected populations, and advocating for greater access to care and increased global funding. Several authors describe our programs and lessons learned from a decade of treating snakebite victims in sub-Saharan Africa. Two studies evaluate shorter, less toxic treatment for visceral leischmaniasis, while a policy analysis proposes critical steps towards eliminating this horrific disease in East Africa. Last, reports from Sokoto, Nigeria describe the collaborative development of a comprehensive model of care for noma.

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Journal Article
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Research

What matters in mental health care? A co-design approach to developing clinical supervision tools for practitioner competency development

Böhm B, Keane G, Karimet M, Palma M
2022-10-21 • Global Mental Health
2022-10-21 • Global Mental Health
BACKGROUND
Specialised mental health (MH) care providers are often absent or scarcely available in low resource and humanitarian settings (LRHS), making MH training and supervision f...
Journal Article
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Commentary

Competency-based mental health supervision: evidence-based tool needs for the humanitarian context

Böhm B, Palma M, Ousley J, Keane G
2021-12-31 • Global Mental Health
2021-12-31 • Global Mental Health
Mental health in humanitarian settings

Mental health in humanitarian settings

Journal Article
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Research

Severity, symptomatology, and treatment duration for mental health disorders: a retrospective analysis from a conflict-affected region of northern Nigeria

Torre SM, Carreño C, Sordo L, Llosa AE, Ousley J,  et al.
2022-07-15 • Conflict and Health
2022-07-15 • Conflict and Health
BACKGROUND
Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) programs are essential during humanitarian crises and in conflict settings, like Nigeria’s Borno State. However, research on...
Journal Article
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Research

Shifting to tele‑mental health in humanitarian and crisis settings: an evaluation of Médecins Sans Frontières experience during the COVID‑19 pandemic

Ibragimov K, Palma M, Keane G, Ousley J, Carreño C,  et al.
2022-02-14 • Conflict and Health
2022-02-14 • Conflict and Health
BACKGROUND
'Tele-Mental Health (MH) services' are an increasingly important way to expand care to underserved groups in low-resource settings. In order to continue providing psychiat...
Journal Article
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Letter

How mental health care is changing in Cameroon because of the COVID-19 pandemic

Mviena JLM, Fanne M, Gondo R, Mwamelo AJ, Esso L,  et al.
2020-10-01 • Lancet Psychiatry
2020-10-01 • Lancet Psychiatry
Journal Article
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Research

Development of a patient rated scale for mental health global state for use during humanitarian interventions

Llosa AE, Martinez-Viciana C, Carreño C, Evangelidou S, Casas G,  et al.
2020-09-18 • International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research
2020-09-18 • International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research
OBJECTIVE
We present the results of a cross-cultural validation of the Mental Health Global State (MHGS) scale for adults and adolescents (<14 years old).

METHODS
We per...
Journal Article
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Review

A systematic review of intimate partner violence interventions focused on improving social support and/ mental health outcomes of survivors

Ogbe E, Harmon S, Van der Bergh R, Degomme O
2020-06-25 • PLOS One
2020-06-25 • PLOS One
BACKGROUND
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a key public health issue, with a myriad of physical, sexual and emotional consequences for the survivors of violence. Social support ha...
Journal Article
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Research

Perceptions and health-seeking behaviour for mental illness among Syrian refugees and Lebanese community members in Wadi Khaled, North Lebanon: a qualitative study

Al Laham D, Ali E, Mousally K, Nahas N, Alameddine A,  et al.
2020-01-21 • Community Mental Health Journal
2020-01-21 • Community Mental Health Journal
This is a qualitative exploration of the perceptions of mental health (MH) and their influence on health-seeking behaviour among Syrian refugees and the Lebanese population in Wadi Khale...
Journal Article
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Research

Not forgetting severe mental disorders in humanitarian emergencies: a descriptive study from the Philippines

Weintraub AC, Garcia MG, Birri E, Severy N, Ferir MC,  et al.
2016-09-12 • International Health
2016-09-12 • International Health
BACKGROUND
Severe mental disorders are often neglected following a disaster. Based on Médecins Sans Frontières' (MSF) experience of providing mental health (MH) care after the 2013 t...