The COVID-19 pandemic and related public health measures have profound effects on the mental health and emotional wellbeing of people all over the world. In humanitarian settings, the pandemic leads to increased demand for mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) interventions, and strains existing MHPSS programming. Please join Drs. Peter Ventevogel, Fahmy Hanna and Florence Baingana to explore how MHPSS issues in pandemic settings can be addressed, drawing upon field examples from COVID-19 and past outbreaks, including the West Africa Ebola epidemic.
Speakers:
• Dr. Peter Ventevogel: Dr. Ventevogel is a psychiatrist and medical anthropologist from the Netherlands. He has worked in the field of humanitarian mental health since 2001 with long postings in Afghanistan and Burundi. He is currently the Senior Mental Health Officer with UNHCR in Geneva.
• Dr. Fahmy Hanna: Dr. Hanna is a psychiatrist from Egypt, with more than a decade of experience in mental health services and its development in low- and middle-income settings. Within the World Health Organization, he is the focal person for Mental Health in Emergencies. He is co-chairing the IASC Reference Group for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies and is closely involved in the work of country level MHPSS support in COVID affected countries.
• Dr. Florence Baingana: Dr. Baingana is a Ugandan psychiatrist and Public Health Specialist. She has worked extensively in countries affected by conflicts and other complex emergencies including Northern Uganda, Afghanistan, West Bank and Gaza and Burundi. Dr. Baingana was in Liberia at the peak of the Ebola Epidemic and spent two and a half years in Sierra Leone post Ebola, to support development of strengthened mental health services.
Field Representatives:
• Deborah Magdalena is a clinical psychologist from Indonesia with a professional career in psychology for more than ten years. She worked in humanitarian Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Thailand with an international NGO and in Indonesia and South Sudan with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). She is currently Coordinator for the MHPSS Working Group North-East Nigeria, based in Maiduguri.
• Mahmuda, a psychologist from Bangladesh, is Assistant MHPSS Officer with UNHCR in Cox’s Bazar Bangladesh. She has been working with Rohingya refugees more than 7 years, initially with the NGO Action Against Hunger (ACF) and subsequently with UNHCR for more than 5 years. Before, she was a research assistant in a project of Johns Hopkins University and Government of Bangladesh. She has degrees in Psychology and Public Health.
Visit the READY initiative website at [ Ссылка ] to access the recording and join the discussion.
To sign up for additional READY updates and be notified about upcoming webinars, workshops, and other events: [ Ссылка ].
