A major challenge for the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings is to make them accessible to community groups. People at the local level often have difficulty in reading and comprehending the guidelines. This article describes how pictorial aids, such as visual stimulus cards and ‘low verbal-high visual’ instruction materials, were used to assist communities groups to work with the guidelines. We describe how these materials have been developed in several post disaster settings in Latin America and South East Asia.

This paper provides a brief overview of selected aspects of the World Banks support in the area of mental and psychosocial health, with a focus on conflict affected countries, and reference to selected points in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee¹ Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007).

The IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings were helpful in organizing mental health and psychosocial support services for Burundians who were expelled from Tanzania. Key aspects of the guidelines were the restoration of social support for people in acute distress, the use of Psychological First Aid, and the provision of care for those with pre-existing mental health problems.

This case study describes the use of the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Kenya. The fieldwork was carried out 14-25 July 2008, and involved discussions with representatives of humanitarian organisations, UN agencies and government departments in Nairobi, Eldoret and Nakuru. It describes the ways in which the guidelines have been disseminated in Kenya, how they have ‘added value’ in that context, as well as the factors that have hindered the full implementation of the guidelines in Kenya.