Theme: Access to Services: Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies
INTRODUCTION
Mental health is a state of cognitive well-being characterized by the ability to carry out daily life activities optimally. It is the major ingredient of rational thinking and good behaviour. Without it, one cannot sustain good interpersonal relationships, academic performance, and occupational functioning. Therefore, all hands should be on deck to ensure that systems are put in place for increased access to good mental health services, especially in emergency and catastrophic situations.
Judging by the current world’s situation, one will agree that many countries are being troubled by emergencies and catastrophes of different magnitudes with limited access to mental health services by the survivors. To that effect, a significant number of people are facing mental health challenges, which include but are not limited to depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders, bipolar disorders, and schizophrenia. By estimation, as documented in the WHO’s (2025) fact sheet, one in every five (about 20%) people affected by emergencies is likely to have any of the aforementioned mental health disorders, which could be mild, moderate, or severe. As a means of coping, some people indulge in abusing substances without knowing that substances of abuse have the chemical potency to compromise the integrity of the abuser’s brain cells and cause him or her mental illness and/or other health related challenges. That is to say that substance abuse is not a solution to any human challenge but a part of the challenges of humans. Apart from substance abuse, catastrophes and emergencies, other possible causes of mental health challenges are financial stress, bereavement, malnutrition, chronic diseases, genetic vulnerability and other life stressors.
Derivations from daily news indicate that terrorism, political assassination, armed robbery, kidnapping, natural disasters, and wars are gradually destroying the peaceful coexistence of different countries and communities. If concerted and sustainable efforts are not made to mitigate the situation, the world is likely to continuously record an astronomical increase in the number of victims of catastrophes with varying degrees of physical and mental health needs and burdens. To attend to these global needs and in the spirit of humanitarianism, many religious groups, non-governmental organizations, philanthropists, and government agencies globally are providing some humanitarian services to the affected individuals. Such good services border mainly on food, shelters, water, clothes, and medical services. Little is done in areas of mental health services despite the fact that mental health is as important as physical health. Therefore, there is need for increased access to mental health services for survivors of catastrophes and emergency situations, in consonance with the theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day. By that, individuals, NGOs, religious groups, schools, community leaders, and government across nations are encouraged to continue to ensure that evidence-based mental health and community-focused interventions are integrated in humanitarian services in emergencies, as enshrined in global mental health guidelines. This is to say that humanitarian services in emergencies should not be limited only to the provisions of food, clothes, water, and medical treatments without mental health and psychosocial support services. With proper integration of mental health services in humanitarian services to victims of catastrophes, the prevalence and incidence of mental health challenges among the victims will be significantly reduced. Again, due to reciprocal relationship dynamics among nations and societies, only the affected should not be left to deal with the situation because, when one nation is affected, another is likely to be also affected; hence, the need for improved access to mental health in catastrophes and emergencies globally.
HOW DO WE IMPROVE ACCESS TO MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN CATASTROPHES AND EMERGENCIES?
In reiteration, and as documented in extant literature, catastrophes could trigger mental health challenges and also hinder easy access to mental health services. However, the problem could be mitigated by employing the following approaches.
- Community model approach. By this, significant number of different community members should be trained, as part of the frontline health workers, on how to provide basic mental health services to victims of traumatic situations within the community. This entails helping the community members to be able to help community members in need of mental health services. Again, the frontline health workers should also be trained on how to detect and manage vicarious trauma, burnout, and compassion fatigue among themselves, for effective mental health service delivery in emergencies.
- Grassroots mental health awareness creation through community change influencers and agents, such as village heads and opinion leaders. This will help to mitigate stigmatizations and address some cultural barriers to mental health.
- Tele-therapeutic approach: This has to do with using online means (emails, Zoom, phone calls, WhatsApp, etc.) to provide mental health services to survivors of critical incidents. By this approach, victims of violence could be reached, thereby cutting down the cost of transportation and the associated risks, especially in crisis-prone areas.
- Community-based multisystemic interventions: Using this approach, religious leaders, school heads, survivors, and community leaders are trained and involved in mental health awareness creation and basic psychological first aid in crisis situations.
- Good implementation of mental health policy and periodic policy review. One thing is to have a policy while another thing is to ensure that the policy is being implemented and the implementation is well monitored.
- Finally, do not blame or stigmatize any survivor of catastrophic situation, rather care for them the much as you can, with empathy and dignity. Evidence-based trauma-informed care should be part of our guiding principles while helping survivors of traumatic events.
With these approaches and good government involvement, the barriers to good access to mental health in catastrophes are likely to be attenuated.
CONCLUSION
From the foregoing, it can be gleaned that improving access to mental health services in emergencies and catastrophes can be achieved through community-based multisystemic approaches, adequate government involvement in promoting mental health and preventing security challenges, NGO’s support, and tele-therapeutic interventions. In addition, survivors of traumatic events are encouraged to always avail themselves of mental health services around them to aid their full recovery. As a survivor of a traumatic event, do not allow yourself to be weighed down by the storm; rather, be like that eagle that continued to soar in the midst of the storm when other birds were enfeebled by it. Your actions in emergencies should be solution-focused, which include but are not limited to seeking professional help, moderate-intensity exercise, engaging in pleasurable healthy activities of your choice, stress and anger management, positive thinking, meditation, social interaction, and avoidance of substance abuse. With these, healing from trauma and recovery from stochastic events would be improved among the survivors.
Dr. Raphael Aguanunu
(Clinical Psychologist)
Caritas Nigeria
Phone: +2348035420822
