2023-11-05 12:45:11
Often, if you ask any family residing in one of the southern villages near the Lebanese-Palestinian border regarding the reasons for their displacement towards other areas in southern Lebanon (Tyre, Abbasiya, Nabatiyeh…) or the capital, Beirut, you will receive repeated answers; Women’s fear and children’s screaming.
Anxiety and insomnia
During the past weeks, the majority of the people of the border villages have been displaced to other areas for many reasons, the most important of which are the sounds of cannons and missiles and the roar of warplanes and surveillance drones (MK), which can cause psychological disturbances in children and affect their condition and behavior, especially in light of the intensification of battles. During the night hours, artillery shelling increases, which deprives children of sleep, causing them insomnia and fear.
Despite the insistence of some residents of southern villages to remain in their homes and monitor security events, especially since they have been accustomed to the sounds of shells for many decades, and they continue to prepare normally for the olive season, on the other hand, there are various cases of people who were displaced from their areas, following one of them was exposed to… Their family suffers from psychological disorders (anxiety, depression, insomnia…), resulting from their constant fear of dying under the rubble, or of the warplanes flying above their heads turning into real raids that end their lives and dreams in a single moment. That is, the fear of death or of losing their children, just as is happening in the Gaza Strip.
For this reason, the Ministry of Health hastened to activate a special emergency plan for all families residing in southern Lebanon, in order to support them psychologically and provide them with the necessary care, to avoid any psychological disorders that might affect them, following more than 3 continuous weeks of security developments in southern Lebanon.
Continuous psychological support
Speaking to Al-Modon, Dr. Rabie Houssami, Director of the National Mental Health Program at the Ministry of Health, explains the activation of the psychological support plan allocated to families, as the Ministry of Health has prepared psychological centers in southern Lebanon with medical supplies, so that they can provide their services to families and follow up on cases. Its psychological and health personnel are monitored and monitored, noting that all centers affiliated with the Ministry of Health began working weeks ago in accordance with the emergency plan drawn up by the Ministry of Health.
Housami pointed out that psychological centers have begun following up on many cases suffering from some psychological disorders due to the military and security events taking place in southern Lebanon.
The psychological plan was activated following coordination with the National Health System Program and a number of international organizations and UNICEF, especially following the international organizations were able to assist the Ministry of Health during this exceptional crisis and supply it with the necessary medical supplies.
Private follow up
The first step was to distribute specialized teams to health centers to train medical staff on mental health first aid. That is, training them on methods of dealing with special cases of anxiety, forms of psychological disorder, panic, etc., as they need special attention.
The training includes teaching medical staff how to deal with children, pregnant women, and the elderly during crises, especially since they are among the groups most affected during the war. Housami points out that the Ministry is in the process of preparing a set of activities aimed at supporting families psychologically and socially within the displacement centers, that is, in the shelters distributed in the southern villages and Sidon.
Various measures taken by the Ministry of Health during the past weeks, in anticipation of the war. It sought to ensure the quantity of medical and psychological medications allocated for addiction and psychological illnesses, available within the centers affiliated with the Ministry, to avoid the loss of medications in the event of war, and so that these centers would be able to treat the largest number of displaced people and provide them with health and psychological services.
It is natural that the Ministry needs associations specialized in psychiatry, and therefore it began its cooperation with a number of associations specialized in psychological treatment, in addition to the Syndicate of Psychologists and a group of specialists in psychological treatment, to help it provide all services related to psychological care, including disseminating information related to this matter to families. And support her to maintain stable mental health.
The importance of this plan lies in its attempt to avoid bouts of depression, which may appear in some people, such as a feeling of despair and sadness that dominates them, a desire to cry, a lack of desire to stay, a feeling of unhappiness, and other types of psychological disorder that may sometimes push “some cases” toward suicide.
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