Exploring current responses to the climate crisis in MHPSS interventions in humanitarian settings

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.

The paper by Oriya and Alekozai (pp. 28-35) concerns family caregivers of relatives with mental health difficulties in Afghanistan. Findings indicate the distress caused to caregivers in terms of their own wellbeing as well as to their immediate family through being stigmatised and outline the positive and negative coping strategies caregivers use in these very difficult circumstances. Two papers focus on children – the one by Ajwang’ Warria (see pp. 5-11) being a review of the connections between trafficking and exploitation of children in fragile settings and the other by Nemiro et al. (pp. 36-45) concerned with integrating mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in education. The paper by Tankink et al. (pp. 46-57) moves into different territory, reporting on the intersection between post-conflict trauma, peacebuilding and economic development in northern Uganda. The remaining article by Sateemae et al. (see pp. 14-27) describes the experiences of high school students living in Southern Thailand in relation to a subnational conflict there. We also have an interesting field report on drama interventions in Lebanon written by Sakhi et al. (pp. 58-64).

Finally, we are publishing a personal reflection from Sabah Abdulrahman (pp. 65-67) who established a non-governmental organisation called Azhee because of their experience of a family member taking their own life. The author reflects on the development of a suicide prevention national strategy in Iraq and the part played by Azhee in this initiative. We would welcome responses to all the issues raised in these articles