[Emilia Pietka-Nykaza]

This forum has been set up to give you a chance to continue the discussion in relation to the webinar on “The politics of mental health and psychosocial programmes in humanitarian settings” presented by Katherine Rehberg.

This is the place where you can raise further questions and interact with colleagues from the webinar.

[Alison Strang]

In your paper, you make little mention of the use of psychotropic medicines in emergency health kits. Can MHPSS programs coexist with psychotropic drugs such as anti-depressants and anti-psychotics or are they competing approaches to responding to suffering?

[Katherine Rehberg]

Responding to the question about the use of psychotropic medicines in emergency health kits, and whether MHPSS programs coexist with psychotropic drugs such as anti-depressants and anti-psychotics, or are they competing approaches to responding to suffering –

I do not see medication as competing with MHPSS programs, and in fact would say that they can be part of (and not just coexist with) an MHPSS strategy. I think the challenge, though, is to do the hard work of striving for proper diagnoses, not making medications too easily available, and being sure that programs have a holistic approach and are integrated with other humanitarian and MHPSS efforts.

 

[Ananda Galappatti]

Responding at greater length to the final question about the degree to which MHPSS should integrate with other fields, or seek to address issues through other fields, my view is that what we are concerned with are MHPSS outcomes – and that achieving this may require us to undertake a variety of interventions, including those that are not traditionally carried out by MHPSS practitioners. As a colleague pointed out to me recently, “if we are really serious about reducing consequences for children in conflict zones, we need to stop their parents getting killed’ – and I would agree. Of course, our ability to address such issues may be limited – but if we want to have impact, I feel we must we willing to look beyond the boundaries of our field. The IASC Guidelines action sheets for interventions in other sectors is a great step in this direction. Would be interested to hear your views?

[Alison Strang]

What, if anything, can social science research in general, and specifically discourses of ‘therapeutic governance,’ contribute to the many practical challenges facing MHPSS programs in humanitarian settings?

[Alison Strang]

How can we get more practitioners to share their thoughts in published manner – how can we better link the academic to the practitioner?

[Maleeka Salih]

The webinar for the recording is now available. Click here to access the recording.

[Lucy Hillier]

1) Katherine: What evidence is available about the effectiveness of awareness raising and C4D interventions focusing on PSS issues and self-help messages and practices

 

[Katherine Rehberg]

1) Katherine: What evidence is available about the effectiveness of awareness raising and C4D interventions focusing on PSS issues and self-help messages and practices –

This is a great question, but unfortunately I’m not terribly familiar with evaluations of the effectiveness of C4D approaches. Would anyone else like to comment?

[Lucy Hillier]

2) Katherine: How to sustain and scale up access to PSS services in a protracted humanitarian crisis (Syria and host countries)

[Lucy Hillier]

Question for Ananda:
how can we get more practitioners to share their thoughts in published manner – how can we better link the academic to the practitioner?

 

[Emilia Pietka-Nykaza]

I think the question, that was initialy directed to Ananda “how can we get more practitioners to share their thoughts in published manner – how can we better link the academic to the practitioner?” is more general one and relates to wider issue of linking research and practice. You may find interesting resources regarding this topic in one one the mhpss groups: “Linking Research and Practice”: https://app.mhpss.net/groups/assessment-monitoring-evaluation-and-research/linking-research-and-practice/

[Lucy Hillier]

Ananda spoke to the work being done on local tools, which is important. Further, can you reflect on the difficulty in actually collecting data on the effectiveness of inventions in conflict and crisis-affected contexts and how this relates to some of the critiques of the field, specifically around donors’ desires for evidence-based interventions?

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