Thread by @firassabiad

Mentally, are we ok? With trauma after trauma, we are stressed, and something has got to give. Yet, access to mental healthcare in 🇱🇧 suffers from underfunding, stigma, and lack of required facilities. At RHUH, we and our partners have been busy, an overview:

The mental health projects at RHUH are a result of collaboration between six different partners. In addition to RHUH, our partners include the @NMHPLebanon,@ICRC_lb, @MdM_mideast, @MSF_Lebanon, and @Skoun_org. The projects are summarized in the following:

The Community Mental Health Center (CMHC), at RHUH, aims at providing patients with access to quality evidence-based services in the field of mental health. Psychologists, and social workers from @MdM_mideast, and psychiatrists from @ICRC_lb provide a patient-centered service.

The addiction center collaboration with @Skoun_org provides support services to people suffering from addiction problems. These include treatment services, including individual and group therapy, psychological follow-up, testing, social services, and family and legal support.

The inpatient ward is the latest addition. It will commence this month, with an initial capacity of 7 beds. The project is supported by @ICRC_lb and @MSF_Lebanon. After several hospitals were put out of service by the #BeirutBlast, psychiatric inpatient services are much needed.

Another project that is in progress, supported by @MSF_Lebanon, is a Stabilization Center for migrant workers. It is an intermediate facility that will host patients who post discharge from hospitals might need some help before their repatriation. It opens next month.

Finally, psychiatrists from @NMHPLebanon lead by Dr @ElChammay, and psychologists from @ICRC_lb are supporting the mental well being of our Covid patients and our staff. Burnout is real, and regular sessions attended by our staff is one preemptive measure in preventing it.