WHO bulletin article on mental and social health after acute emergencies

Mental health in emergencies
- Mark van Ommeren, Shekhar Saxena, & Benedetto Saraceno

Mental and social health during and after acute emergencies: emerging
consensus?

Mark van Ommeren, Shekhar Saxena, & Benedetto Saraceno

ABSTRACT

Mental health care programmes during and after acute emergencies in
resource-poor countries have been considered controversial. There is
no agreement on the public health value of the post-traumatic stress
disorder concept and no agreement on the appropriateness of vertical
(separate) trauma-focused services. A range of social and mental
health intervention strategies and principles seem, however, to have
the broad support of expert opinion. Despite continuing debate, there
is emerging agreement on what entails good public health practice in
respect of mental health. In terms of early interventions, this
agreement is exemplified by the recent inclusion of a "mental and
social aspects of health" standard in the Sphere handbook's revision
on minimal standards in disaster response. This affirmation of
emerging agreement is important and should give clear messages to
health planners.

Discussion - Derrick Silove; Derek Summerfield
Full Text [pdf 190kb]
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/83/1/en/71.pdf
|pdf with Arabic summary [pdf 473kb]
http://www.who.int/entity/bulletin/volumes/83/1/en/71arabic.pdf
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http://www.who.int/entity/bulletin/volumes/83/1/rt105abstract/en