Seoul – Mission in the Republic of Korea (ROK) hosted the Workshop on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Humanitarian Interventions – Community-based Approaches from 5 to 6 July 2022. The workshop brought together 25 ROK humanitarian professionals, including Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and medical personnel as well as Government officials.

The challenging environments of humanitarian crises and emergencies take a toll on the mental health of affected populations. In addition, the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased attention toward mental health and psychosocial support, which made it a system-wide priority in humanitarian interventions. Meanwhile, as community-based approaches contribute to restoring and strengthening collective structures essential to the psychological well-being of each individual, it has been meaningfully mainstreamed in all stages of MHPSS responses.

Following the high demand for more in-depth training on this subject, whose the first introductory webinar was held in February, the two-day workshop was able to take participants’ learning on mental health and psychosocial response a step further. Aiming to meet the growing need for capacity-building support in MHPSS in humanitarian context among ROK humanitarian practitioners, it provided the requisite skills and knowledge of project managers and supporting staff to effectively plan and deliver MHPSS components in humanitarian assistance.

“Mental health and psychosocial support is essential to foster the wellbeing of people, who face crisis and especially those who are displaced as a consequence. While providing psychosocial support, it’s however essential to safeguard the dignity and agency of individuals and communities, whose negative psychological reactions are for the most part a normal consequence to the abnormality of the situation and build the intervention starting from their strengths and capacities,” said Guglie.

“Capacity building support aims to improve capacity of MHPSS service providers, to reduce suffering and improve well-being of affected populations. Sharing experiences from MHPSS programs worldwide and knowledge exchange broadens the knowledge of humanitarian practitioners and strengthens their skills to be better prepared to respond to affected population needs,” added Amal.

Since 2014, IOM ROK has taken a key role in consolidating 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