News
#Syriahealth
December 18, 2024
Dear WFMH friends in the world,
The WFMH has received the following invitation from the World Psychiatric Association Scientific Section on Psychological Aspects of Persecution and Torture. Let us hope that necessary psychosocial, mental health and psychiatric care can be provided to the people in Syria comprehensively.
Tsuyoshi Akiyama
President of the World Federation for Mental Health
Dear colleagues,
You will all have followed the dramatic events in Syria and might ponder what we can do as medical, mental health, public health or legal experts. We are also concerned that the volatile situation is challenging in itself, and we do not know if and how the HTS fundamentalist group will deal with the many challenges created by the earlier regimes and recent events. While some necessary activities might wait until the political situation is more transparent and hopefully stable, there is a lot we can and should do, starting immediately with the good networks we have internationally, bringing together Syrian professionals and experts from other countries.This builds up on earlier work for Syria we had provided.
We have to address the situation with several groups that urgently need support and can not expect to get it. This includes the torture survivors just liberated from prison, some after 40 years of suffering, their family members, and victims of all forms of violence, and earthquakes. Last but not least, the Syrians who are now distressed because of the threat of forced return from safe and stable countries. In a research project with UNICEF, we demonstrated that groups who have been partly or largely integrated living in third countries suffer significantly when forced to return to an environment with a new "foreign" language, interrupting regular life and the healing process, an upcoming issue not to be neglected. We are already in contact with several resource networks and want to provide, at first online with free access:
- Basics of public health, mental health, and trauma for all possible helpers
- Advanced training in the documentation of violations and support for victims and their families
- Online support and supervision for all relevant persons interested and active with victims.
We are starting with a planning meeting next Saturday (3 p.m. Vienna time; see link below).
After this open discussion meeting, we will already start the first open training for all interested persons and organizations on "Psychological aspects of torture and persecution" with international experts (4 p.m.), and regular online workshops will follow. The language is, in the beginning, English, but we will also try to accommodate Syrian Arabic. The online program needs no installation; you can simply click the link. Please get in touch with me with any questions (thomas.wenzel@meduniwien.ac.at). We are looking to integrate any interested helper or expert in our group to share resources quickly and efficiently.
Syriahealth
https://meet.goto.com/923488829
You can also dial in using your phone.
Access Code: 923-488-829
Austria: +43 1 2060 92964
Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts:
https://meet.goto.com/installSincerely yours
Thomas Wenzel
Chair, World Psychiatric Association Scientific Section on Psychological Aspects of Persecution and Torture. Member CEHRI, Co Chair AI Medgroup Austria, Member Syrian Association for Mental Health