MENTAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT: - libdoc.who.int - World ...

People with mental health conditions often experience worsened symptoms
because of the stress of emergencies. Compounding the situation, health workers
might migrate or die during emergencies, thus depriving people with mental
health conditions of pre-existing health and social support services. People living
in institutions, such as psychiatric hospitals, are at heightened risk of being abandoned;
others can be left behind by their own families. Emergency relief services
often are inadequate to address the specific needs of people with mental health
conditions, or in some cases explicitly exclude people with pre-existing mental
health conditions from receiving services. 99
Some country examples:
• In 2008, a forced repatriation programme from the United Republic of Tanzania
to Burundi consisted of identifying Burundian refugees, either in refugee
camps or in villages, and returning them to their villages of origin via border
transit camps managed by nongovernmental organizations. Families often were
divided in the process; it was thought that they could be reunited in the transit
camps or at the latest, in their villages of origin. Purposely or not, family
members did not recognize many of their relatives with severe mental health
conditions at the transit camps. Compounding the situation, some people with
mental health conditions were not able to identify their villages of origin. The
transit camps are now closing and the remaining people with mental health
conditions are stranded with nowhere to go, because they do not know the
names of their villages and their families refuse to recognize them. 100
• Following the start of the conflict in Iraq in 2003 waves of looters descended on
the Al-Rashad psychiatric hospital, burning everything that was not stolen. The
hospital director reported that some residents were raped. The 1050 residents
fled the hospital – for the 300 who returned, living conditions were dire. The hospital
lacked sufficient drinking water; it had no water for washing or cleaning,
resulting in extremely unhy-
In some countries in conflict, staff abandon mental health
facilities leaving patients in locked wards where they die
from hunger and health complications.
gienic conditions; and only
very limited food was available
for residents. Warehouses,
offices, wards, residences,
kitchens, workshops, and
laundries were destroyed. 101
• During the conflict in Kosovo,
most health workers
from the psychiatric institute
fled the area, leaving the
institute without supervision.
Residents were left locked in
their wards and rooms; some
died from hunger, cold, and
18 MentalHealthandDevelopment:Targetingpeoplewithmentalhealthconditionsasavulnerablegroup
UN Photo/Logan Abassi