MENTAL HEALTH AND PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT

Our projects

Al Saraya Centre in occupied East Jerusalem

Al Saraya works in the oppressive setting of the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem. Amid tensions and escalating violence, the centre delivers life skills sessions for young people and children on topics related to identity, rights and responsibilities, leadership, expression and on dealing with peers.

By increasing young peoples’ confidence and resilience, Al Saraya Centre helps them become more effective positive agents for change in their communities.

Friends for Mental Health, Gaza

Although the prevalence of mental illness has increased in Gaza as a result of insecurity, political and economic factors, mental health services continue to be weak and fragmented. MAP has supported mental health provision in Gaza for more than six years. As well as providing case management support for people with mental illness and support to their families, our partner Friends for Mental Health trains social workers, judges, lawyers and community leaders to improve knowledge about mental illness and the rights of mental health service users. They also organise community awareness campaigns help reduce stigma around mental health and advocate for the rights of people with mental illness.

Mental health and psychosocial support for children and families in Lebanon refugee camps

In Lebanon, MAP is leading a partnership with UNICEF and local organisations to provide structured, recreational and learn-through-play psychosocial support activities for children, women and families – which are open to all Palestinians in Lebanon, including those displaced from Syria and those already in Lebanon. The project provides safe spaces for survivors of gender-based violence as well as focus group discussions and emotional support groups.

Improving mental health services in the West Bank

Mental health services are limited in the oPt, and mental health issues underreported, under-resourced and under-researched. The current services are not integrated into mainstream healthcare offered to the population and do not meet the mental health needs of communities, even though Palestinians are at a higher risk of mental health problems due to chronic exposure to political violence and dispossession. 

MAP works to improve the integration of mental health services into public health care. We focus on developing the quality of the training and curriculum of psychiatry residency programmes in the West Bank, as well as building the capacity of psychiatry residents at the Bethlehem Psychiatry Hospital. We also support Palestinian mental health professionals to identify and design the most effective ways to build workforce capacity, so that they can support families to improve the mental health of Palestinian children and young people.