Traumatized Syrians face major mental health issues with little care available

WASHINGTON: After more than a decade of civil war, the devastating earthquakes in Syria this year inflicted further trauma on an already vulnerable population, experts said during a conference in the US on Wednesday.
Many Syrians are not only suffering the physical effects of the crises in their country but also severe mental repercussions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, that are taking a deep psychological toll on Syrian society as a whole and those in the northwest in particular.
The knock-on effects of this mental health crisis, which affects not only victims of the conflict and the natural disaster but also those who provide them with healthcare, include substance abuse of drugs such as the amphetamine Captagon, narcotics and pain medications.
These effects are observed across many segments of Syrian society, according to medical and social experts who shared their experiences and findings during Wednesday’s event, which was organized by the Middle East Institute in Washington and attended by Arab News.
As the civil war approached the end of its 12th year, two earthquakes, of magnitude 7.8 and 7.5, caused devastating damage to parts of northern Syria and southern Turkiye on Feb. 6.
According to report by MedGlobal, a charitable, non-governmental organization that provides emergency humanitarian aid and healthcare, the “Syrian conflict has had a severe psychological impact on its civilians, resulting in high levels of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.”
It added that many Syrians have experienced traumatic events such as bombings, shootings and forced displacement, which have contributed to mental health issues. The lack of access to adequate mental healthcare and support has exacerbated the psychological effects of the war on the population.
The conference heard that almost half of the Syrian population, and especially those worst-affected by the earthquakes, is suffering from some degree of mental disorders, and many have developed severe condition and show the full symptoms of PTSD.
Dr. Nora Abdullah, a psychiatry resident at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut and a MedGlobal volunteer, said there is an acute mental health crisis in the parts of northwestern Syria that are outside the control of the Syrian regime, with only two psychiatrists to serve a population of about 3.5 million people.
She described the scale of the crisis as “staggering” and said a “telehealth” approach, using technology to provide treatment and support services to patients and to medical staff working under highly stressful conditions, who often fall victim to mental health issues themselves, is helping to compensate for this lack of mental health professionals in parts of Syria.
Dr. Dania Albaba, a psychiatry resident at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and a volunteer and report author for MedGlobal, said “psychological first aid” is being used in the field in Syria to help people recognize the warning signs of mental trauma and disorders, and teach them what they can do to address them.
“We know emergency mental health aid is very valuable and is needed in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake, or any crisis,” she added.
Alex Mahoney, acting director for the Middle East, North Africa and Europe at the US Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, said that in addition to supporting the provision of emergency mental health treatment, the agency is also helping to provide psycho-social support services for the Syrian people, including material aid and training for displaced refugees.
He acknowledged that the region remains “a dangerous environment,” especially for organizations with direct links to the US, and so USAID works with the UN and is careful not to reveal the identities of those who help it distribute aid to communities.
He also spoke about “telehealth” and said it is one of the services his agency provides, through the work of specialist partners.
Natasha Hall, a senior fellow with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the situation in northwestern Syria is dire, especially since the earthquakes. Between 60 and 85 percent of people are unemployed and about 9,000 who did have jobs have lost them because of funding cuts by international donors, she added.
International aid and funding for refugees in the country is drying up yet the situation Syrians find themselves in has not improved in years, said Hall.
“This population is completely dependent on humanitarian aid,” she added.