Welcome to the first issue of Intervention for 2022. We are opening the year by focussing a special section on the climate crisis and mental health and psychosocial support. We hope that the articles included demonstrate useful approaches and lessons learned in terms of practical MHPSS (mental health and psychosocial support) actions for the field. We are also featuring a range of other articles that have been submitted alongside the ones received in response to the call for papers about the climate crisis.

Research findings show humanitarian work impacts one’s health. We conducted a prospective observational study among 618 international humanitarian aid workers (iHAWs)’ recruited from 76 countries to investigate health changes and ill-health risk factors after mostly short-term (<1 year) medical emergency assignments. The aid workers were assigned to 27 countries. Data collected between 2017 and 2020.

Many Iraqis have experienced a multitude of stressors over the past four decades due to war, sanctions and civil conflict. Being closely associated with social cohesion and community stabilisation, suicide prevention activities have been an increasingly important component of the International Organization of Migration (IOM)’s Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Programme.

Although suicide is a significant global health priority, it is underexamined in humanitarian crises. Over 850,000 Rohingya reside as refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh; suicide risk may be high in this community by some indicators, but little is definitively known. Even less is known about humanitarian workers’ capacity to recognise and respond to suicide risk in affected communities.