IOM Mission in the Republic of Korea (ROK), with support from the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), hosted a webinar on Community-based Approaches to Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (CB MHPSS) Programming in Crises on 15 February 2022 for humanitarian practitioners and public in ROK. The webinar brought together a total of 140 ROK target beneficiaries including NGO workers, government officials and staff of other United Nations agencies.

This webinar was organized to address growing recognition of mental health and psychosocial support caused by escalation in humanitarian emergencies and human rights violations. Community-based (CB) approach, in particular, brought attention in recent years as strengthening the resilience of the community is a crucial factor in recovering from adversity. In accordance with this, IOM has actively responded to the need to identify and harmonize practices of MHPSS that are community-based. 

Led by Guglielmo Schinina, the head of the Section of Mental Health, Psychosocial Response and Intercultural Communication, and Deborah Gayatri Magdalena, the coordinator of the Mental Health and Psychosocial Working Group in Nigeria, the webinar offered an invaluable learning opportunity by introducing CB MHPSS essentials. This includes its core concepts, key considerations for MHPSS programming and implementation in humanitarian contexts as well as ideas of integrating CB MHPSS into other areas of humanitarian intervention. Meanwhile, this webinar promoted IOM’s comparative advantages on MHPSS based on experiences and engagements in this subject. 

“Responders need to be mindful that Emergency-affected people are first and foremost to be viewed as active participants in improving individual and collective well-being, rather than as passive recipients of services that are designed for them by others. Thus, using Community-based MHPSS approaches facilitates families, groups and communities to support and care for others in ways that encourage recovery and resilience. These approaches also contribute to restoring and strengthening those collective structures and systems essential to daily life and well-being,” said Guglielmo.

A participant commented that “With detailed and substanstive session delivered by the two speakers, this webinar offered a unique opportunity to look at humanitarian assistance from another perspective. Additionally, it was insightful by introducing various considerations that might arise in the community that are related to MHPSS.”    

IOM ROK holds a quarterly webinar series which offers virtual knowledge-sharing sessions to introduce a wide range of topics in humanitarian assistance including best practices and innovative ideas to ROK humanitarian professionals. Followed by two webinars delivered on Cash-based Intervention (CBI) in Emergencies and Counter-Human Trafficking in Emergencies last year, the third webinar on CB MHPSS expanded participants’ understanding of the prominent role community plays in improving the affected persons’ mental health and psychosocial well-being. 

“IOM utilized decades of experience providing MHPSS in developing holistic and systemic practices to better support communities maintain or reestablish cohesion after disasters,” said Steve HAMILTON, Chief of Mission at IOM ROK.   

Since 2014, IOM ROK has taken an important role in providing a wide range of capacity-building support for ROK humanitarian actors with funding support from US Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). 

For more information, please contact Eunice Jieun KIM, IOM Republic of Korea Mission, Tel.: +82 70 4820 0291, Email: jikim@iom.int.