Community &Mental Health &Peer Education/Counseling Bill Brieger | 12 Mar 2024 09:04 am
Sudan’s Mental Health Crisis: Community-Led Peer Mental Health Counseling
Sudan’s Mental Health Crisis: Community-Led Peer Mental Health Counseling
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Omnia Hassan has posted about a unique program of peer-led mental health counseling. Read her thoughts below and check them in the class blog of Social and Behavioral Foundations of Primary Health Care. As Sudan faces persistent war and conflict, the focus must turn to Sudanese internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are unable to escape the country, facing increasing incidence rates of several serious mental health burdens.
A successful example of this program in Uganda with Rwandan and Somali refugees with PTSD where the evidence demonstrated that 65% of participants no longer fulfilled the criteria for PTSD. Universities in Sudan, such as Ahfad University of Women, have committed themselves to the education and training of community members to equip them with the knowledge and skills to provide mental health counseling for their peers. The Sudan Ministry of Health (MoH) has lent staff and workers to increase the numbers of those being trained to become lay counselors. Funding is a particular point of discussion, and the United States has frequently sent funds to Sudan for humanitarian assistance. The U.S. Department of State funded a grant for the Ahfad University of Women before as part of the University’s Trauma Training Treatment Center.
The UN Refugee Agency acknowledges the displacement issues brought upon the Sudanese population during the war. They have explicitly commented on the displacement of Darfuris in the western region of Sudan, sharing the interventions they have implemented to mitigate mental health issues, such as promoting social cohesion. With over 10 million people uprooted and 9 million people internally displaced, Sudan’s war fuels the largest displacement crisis in the world. The mental health of these individuals needs to be addressed as they endure the most grueling event of their lives. |
