Refugees don’t just need food, shelter and medicine. They also need mental health support
THE Syrian refugee crisis is now one of the biggest in history: 2 million have fled the country, 5 million more are displaced within Syria and there is more to come.
The sooner the fighting abates enough to let people go home the better, but no one expects that soon. If Syria fragments into religious ghettoes, many refugees may find they cannot go home at all. Like so many other displaced persons worldwide, those who have fled – half of them children – could fester for years in camps and slums, incubators for rage and future conflict.
Can we prevent this? Scientists who study refugees see some hopeful signs. In the past, host countries gave refugees only enough to survive in the hope they wouldn't stay long – a policy called "humane deterrence". That attitude is waning, though it has not totally gone.
But even when hosts are generous, if no one pays enough attention to the urgent mental health needs of such traumatised people, their health worsens and hope goes.
This is an avoidable problem. Researchers are learning what kinds of mental health support refugees need. They should get it, and we should use this tragedy to learn more about giving it.
Aid agencies already prefer to let refugees find shelter within host communities rather than camps – or if that becomes impossible, try to build camps that are not warrens of violence (see "Lasting costs of Syrian war"). What would help even further, say some, is a greater understanding of the little-studied psychological impact of humiliation – and how to heal it.
The countries that have opened their borders, hospitals, houses and schools to Syrian refugees – Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt – are shining examples to the world. Other countries could do better. The refugee crisis has received barely half the money it needs. Many countries that sat at the G20 summit in Russia last week, for example, Brazil, China and India, could do far more to help pay for tents, food, sanitation and vaccines.
But if we really want peace in the region, we should also spend a little on healing the minds of the dispossessed – and learning how to do it better.
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