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Mental Healthcare in Mweso
Democratic Republic of Congo. Every week, an MSF team of counsellors and health promoters puts on a play and conducts sensitisation activities with displaced people living outside and inside of Mweso school, North Kivu. Theatre is used as an effective means of health promotion and the performance touches on different themes, among them sexual and domestic violence. The MSF team use theater to present the different healthcare activities that are offered to people in Mweso.
© Sara Creta/MSF

World Mental Health Day 2018: Beyond a healthy body

Democratic Republic of Congo. Every week, an MSF team of counsellors and health promoters puts on a play and conducts sensitisation activities with displaced people living outside and inside of Mweso school, North Kivu. Theatre is used as an effective means of health promotion and the performance touches on different themes, among them sexual and domestic violence. The MSF team use theater to present the different healthcare activities that are offered to people in Mweso.
© Sara Creta/MSF

For people who have lived through violence or natural disasters, survival goes beyond ensuring physical well-being. Even after their physical injuries have been treated, hidden psychological wounds can remain. To help heal the patient’s psychological wounds, MSF professionals are there to listen, support and provide mental healthcare, so the traumatic experiences do not come to define their lives.

 According to the World Health Organization, around the world one in four people will suffer some kind of mental health disorder, yet about 60 per cent of sufferers do not seek help. This percentage is likely to increase dramatically when factors such as persecution, the need to flee armed conflict and natural disasters, and a lack of access vital healthcare are added. This is why MSF places a great deal of importance on providing mental healthcare during humanitarian emergencies.

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