Youth living with war and ongoing conflict are frequently exposed to potentially traumatic events and cumulative stress which can result in temporarily impaired academic functioning and reduced wellbeing in school. In Palestine, the Ministry of Education has included psychosocial support programmes in the schools for the purpose of reducing stress reactions and improving school functioning amongst students.

Mental health is an increasing concern around the world, but there is a substantial gap in terms of access to quality mental healthcare between Western and non-Western countries. To help close this gap and improve the delivery of mental health and psychosocial support services (MHPSS), the UN’s 2016 Grand Bargain declared a new approach of prioritising the localisation of these services. This paper examines the effects of the Grand Bargain on the localisation of mental health and psychosocial support services in non-Western countries, as a means to decolonise mental health.

People in Mosul, Iraq faced many acts of violence between 2014 and 2017 when the city was seized by the terrorist group of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). We aimed to determine the prevalence of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among university students in Mosul. This cross-sectional study was conducted between the period of 15 April and 29 December 2020. Data were collected from 305 university students by face-to-face interview. The Iraqi modified version of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire was used to assess the prevalence and degree of PTSD symptoms.

Recent research offers good reason to think that various psychedelic drugs—including psilocybin, ayahuasca, ketamine, MDMA, and LSD—may have significant therapeutic potential in the treatment of various mental health conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, existential distress, and addiction. Although the use of psychoactive drugs, such as Diazepam or Ritalin, is well established, psychedelics arguably represent a therapeutic step change. As experiential therapies, their value would seem to lie in the subjective experiences they induce.