Paediatrics and international child health
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Paediatr Int Child Health · Nov 2013
Mental health services for children exposed to armed conflict: Médecins Sans Frontières' experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and the occupied Palestinian territory.
Armed conflict has broad-ranging impacts on the mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. Mental health needs greatly exceed service provision in conflict settings, particularly for these age groups. The provision and targeting of appropriate services requires better understanding of the characteristics and requirements of children and adolescents exposed to armed conflict. ⋯ Brief trauma-focused therapy, the current MSF mental health therapeutic intervention, appears to be effective in reducing symptoms arising from the experience of trauma. Although inferences on outcomes are limited by high default rates, this provides a feasible tool for addressing the mental health needs of children exposed to armed conflict. Priorities for future research include understanding why children and adolescents constitute a small proportion of patients in some programmes, why many leave care early and how to address these issues, but this research must occur within the context of efforts to provide access to mental health services for children.