Emergency situations such as armed conflicts, natural disasters, epidemics and famines deeply affect people's mental health and psychosocial well-being. Globally, one in five (22.1%) people living in areas affected by a conflict during the previous ten years have mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia1. For children, adverse experiences in emergencies can disrupt cognitive, emotional, social and physical development, with enduring consequences2, 3. Emergencies affect the availability of already sparse mental health services, and can erode the ability of families, caregivers and communities to support each other. Over the years, attention to mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies has grown remarkably4. Mental health has now become a routine part of primary health care interventions in humanitarian settings5. The accumulation of evidence around a suite of brief scalable psychological interventions tailored to the needs of people affected by emergencies has fueled optimism that we can effectively treat common mental health conditions with relatively modest means6, 7. But there is no reason for complacency. The grim reality is that, in humanitarian settings, mental health and psychosocial support remains insufficiently prioritized, and programming is often still fragmented, inconsistent and inequitable8. There is a recognized need for a single easy-to-use package that strengthens collective humanitarian action by facilitating a unified response, integrating mental health and psychosocial support into various sectors such as health, protection, education, gender-based violence, nutrition, shelter, and camp coordination and management. The new Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Minimum Service Package (MHPSS MSP) has been spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN) International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). It is a resource for organizations which plan, support, coordinate, implement, fund and evaluate humanitarian activities. These include governments, national and international non-governmental organizations, civil society, Red Cross and Red Crescent networks, UN agencies, and financial donors. It outlines a set of activities that have the highest priority in meeting the immediate critical mental health needs of emergency-affected populations, based on existing guidelines, evidence, research, and expert consensus. Each MSP activity is presented with a brief introduction explaining why the activity is important, a checklist of actions required to implement the activity safely and effectively, a list of relevant guidelines to support implementation, and associated costs (e.g., staff salaries) for consideration. For example, the section “Provide mental health care as part of general health services” briefly explains why this is needed (e.g., better accessibility, less stigma), specifies the recommended actions (e.g., adapting training materials, ensuring supervision), and lists relevant and up-to-date guidance (e.g., the WHO mhGAP Humanitarian Intervention Guide, mhGAP-HIG). Humanitarian actors writing programme proposals can easily see what each activity entails and what budget is needed. Financial donors can use the MSP when making decisions about resource allocation. Persons coordinating the humanitarian response can see where the gaps are in different sectors (e.g., health, education), and what additional activities may be needed to meet the mental health needs of affected populations. The MSP has been developed over three years based on literature reviews, consultations, and peer review by key stakeholders in global, regional and frontline positions. The initial draft was field-tested globally, with demonstration sites in Colombia, Iraq, North-East Nigeria, South Sudan, and Ukraine. Feedback was collected from hundreds of humanitarian actors across sectors and regions. The final version will be launched by the primary coordination body for humanitarian assistance, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). We have already received some preliminary feedback on how the MSP is informing the emergency response to the war in Ukraine. A staff member of an organization writing a regional mental health response strategy noted that the MSP allowed them to do this much more quickly and efficiently. A donor, reviewing a proposal to support psychiatric hospitals in Ukraine, observed that the MSP was helpful in understanding and evaluating the proposal. The MSP is also informing the development of a strategic mental health framework supported by the First Lady of Ukraine. The MSP is relevant to any humanitarian emergency that requires a coordinated international response. However, it can also be relevant for smaller emergencies, for disaster risk reduction (especially relevant because of the climate crisis), and for longer-term development programming. Humanitarian crises have a long-lasting impact on mental health, and it is therefore essential to work from the onset towards mental health and social care systems that can be sustained over time9. The use of the MSP is expected to lead to better coordinated and more predictable, timely, and evidence-informed responses that make effective use of limited resources and improve the scale and quality of programming. It has the potential to be transformative and to give a major boost by prioritizing activities, providing a shared language for advocacy and planning, and supporting coordinated implementation of activities. This should ultimately lead to better mental health outcomes for large numbers of emergency-affected people, including vulnerable groups, who often receive less attention and investment.

The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. The pandemic not only induced a public health crisis, but has led to severe economic, social, and educational crises. Across economies and societies, the distributional consequences of the pandemic have been uneven. Among groups living in vulnerable conditions, the pandemic substantially magnified the inequality gaps, with possible negative implications for these individuals' long-term physical, socioeconomic, and mental wellbeing. This Viewpoint proposes priority, programmatic, and policy recommendations that governments, resource partners, and relevant stakeholders should consider in formulating medium-term to long-term strategies for preventing the spread of COVID-19, addressing the virus's impacts, and decreasing health inequalities. The world is at a never more crucial moment, requiring collaboration and cooperation from all sectors to mitigate the inequality gaps and improve people's health and wellbeing with universal health coverage and social protection, in addition to implementation of the health in all policies approach.

The worst rates of preventable mortality and morbidity among women, adolescents, and children occur in humanitarian and other crises. Sarah Zeid and colleagues discuss the specific attention that is needed for women, adolescents, and children in crises and fragile settings

International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic StudiesVolume 9, Issue 3 p. 266-272 Essay Palestinian Girls and the Multiple Meanings of Hijab Henia Dakkak, Henia Dakkak UNFPA, 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10158Search for more papers by this authorJoseph T. Mikulka, Joseph T. Mikulka Hunter College School of Social Work, New York, USASearch for more papers by this author Henia Dakkak, Henia Dakkak UNFPA, 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10158Search for more papers by this authorJoseph T. Mikulka, Joseph T. Mikulka Hunter College School of Social Work, New York, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 11 September 2012 https://doi.org/10.1002/aps.1326Citations: 6Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume9, Issue3Special Issue: Children affected by armed conflict: Views from the Global South Part IISeptember 2012Pages 266-272 RelatedInformation

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA's) role and areas of work concerning mental health and psychosocial support in emergency settings for better inter-agency/sectoral coordination and collaboration. This paper will also discuss the implications of the guidelines for current operations and future ones.

The international community has been mandated to mainstream gender into humanitarian response ever since the landmark Beijing conference in 1995. The current humanitarian reform process provides unique opportunities to accelerate this integration.

This is a summary of the presentations and discussion of Panel 2.10, Reproductive, Mental, and Child Health of the Conference, Health Aspects of the Tsunami Disaster in Asia, convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Phuket, Thailand, 04-06 May 2005. The topics discussed included issues related to reproductive, mental, and child health as pertain to the responses to the damage created by the Tsunami. It is presented in the following major sections: (1) background; (2) key issues; (3) discussion; and (4) recommendations. Key issues discussed included: (1) coordination/collaboration; (2) provision of services; and (3) raising awareness and advocacy.

Is enough being done to provide displaced women with emergency obstetric care (EmOC)?

review Reproductive health for displaced people: investing in the future Plus: • Iraq and the future of humanitarianism • Asylum and the media • Refugees in Johannesburg • Use of interpreters T his issue's theme is reproductive health for refugees and IDPs. Most articles are based on presentations to a major international conference held in Brussels in October 2003 organised by the Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium. We are indebted to guest editors Samantha Guy (of Marie Stopes International) and David del Vecchio (UNFPA) for their input and advice, and to UNFPA and UNHCR's Health and Community Development Section for their sponsorship of this issue. With this FMR you will receive a copy of a readership questionnaire. We would be extremely grateful if you would spend a few minutes completing and returning it. You can either post it, fax it or download the questionnaire as a Word document at www. fmreview.org.questionnaire and send it as an email attachment to fmr@qeh.ox.ac.uk. This questionnaire will help us ensure that FMR meets your needs. As an added incentive , each person returning a completed questionnaire will be entered into a draw – and the winner will receive a selection of publications donated by international agencies. If you have recently received a subscription renewal letter, please respond as soon as possible. Chasing renewals wastes precious resources! Issue 20's feature theme will be refugee and IDP livelihoods and will be produced in collaboration with UNHCR. The feature theme of issue 21 will be the return and reintegration of IDPs, produced in collaboration with OCHA's Internal Displacement Unit and UNDP's Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (see p55 for call for papers). Deadline for submissions for FMR 21 is 15 May. With our best wishes for 2004 Marion Couldrey and Tim Morris Editors, Forced Migration Review from the editors Forced Migration Review provides a forum for the regular exchange of practical experience, information and ideas between researchers, refugees and internally displaced people, and those who work with them. It is published in English, Spanish and Arabic by the Refugee Studies Centre/University of Oxford in association with the Global IDP Project/Norwegian Refugee Council. The Spanish translation, Revista de Migraciones Forzadas, is produced by IDEI in Guatemala. See subscription form in centre of magazine or www.fmreview.org. In the previous issue of FMR we mentioned that we are short of funding for this year. Despite some new and …