How we can bring mental health support to refugees Essam Daod

For the last two and a half years,

I’m one of the few, if not the only,
child psychiatrist

operating in refugee camps,
shorelines and rescue boats

in Greece and the Mediterranean Sea.

And I can say, with great confidence,

that we are witnessing
a mental-health catastrophe

that will affect most of us,
and it will change our world.

I live in Haifa, but nowadays,
I spend most of my time abroad.

During my time
on the Greek island of Lesbos

and on the rescue boats
in the Mediterranean,

thousands of refugee boats
arrived to the shoreline,

crowded with more
than 1.5 million refugees.

One-fourth of them are children,

fleeing war and hardship.

Each boat carries
different sufferings and traumas

from Syria, Iraq, Afganistan
and different countries in Africa.

In the last three years alone,

more than 12,000 refugees
lost their lives.

And hundreds of thousands
lost their souls and their mental health

due to this cruel
and traumatic experience.

I want to tell you about Omar,

a five-year-old Syrian refugee boy

who arrived to the shore on Lesbos
on a crowded rubber boat.

Crying, frightened, unable to understand
what’s happening to him,

he was right on the verge
of developing a new trauma.

I knew right away
that this was a golden hour,

a short period of time
in which I could change his story,

I could change the story

that he would tell himself
for the rest of his life.

I could reframe his memories.

I quickly held out my hands
and said to his shaking mother in Arabic,

(Arabic) “Ateeni elwalad o khudi nafas.”

“Give me the boy,
and take a breath.”

His mother gave him to me.

Omar looked at me with scared,
tearful eyes and said,

(Arabic) “Ammo (uncle in Arabic),
shu hada?”

“What is this?”

as he pointed out to the police
helicopter hovering above us.

“It’s a helicopter!

It’s here to photograph you
with big cameras,

because only the great
and the powerful heroes,

like you, Omar, can cross the sea.”

Omar looked at me,
stopped crying and asked me,

(Arabic) “Ana batal?”

“I’m a hero?”

I talked to Omar for 15 minutes.

And I gave his parents
some guidance to follow.

This short psychological intervention

decreases the prevalence
of post-traumatic stress disorder

and other mental health
issues in the future,

preparing Omar to get an education,

join the workforce,
raise a family and beyond.

How?

By stimulating the good memories
that will be stored in the amygdala,

the emotional storage of the human brain.

These memories
will fight the traumatic ones,

if they are reactivated in the future.

To Omar, the smell of the sea
will not just remind him

of his traumatic journey from Syria.

Because to Omar, this story
is now a story of bravery.

This is the power of the golden hour,

which can reframe the trauma
and establish a new narrative.

But Omar is only one
out of more than 350,000 children

without the proper mental health support
in this crisis alone.

Three hundred and fifty
thousand children and me.

We need mental health professionals

to join rescue teams
during times of active crisis.

This is why my wife and I and friends
co-founded “Humanity Crew.”

One of the few aid
organizations in the world

that specializes in providing
psychosocial aid

and first-response
mental health interventions

to refugees and displaced populations.

To provide them
with a suitable intervention,

we create the four-step approach,
a psychosocial work plan

that follows the refugees
on each step of their journey.

Starting inside the sea,
on the rescue boats,

as mental health lifeguards.

Later in the camps, hospitals
and through our online clinic

that breaks down borders
and overcomes languages.

And ending in the asylum countries,
helping them integrate.

Since our first mission in 2015,

“Humanity Crew” had 194 delegations

of qualified, trained
volunteers and therapists.

We have provided 26,000 hours
of mental health support

to over 10,000 refugees.

We can all do something
to prevent this mental health catastrophe.

We need to acknowledge that first aid
is not just needed for the body,

but it has also to include
the mind, the soul.

The impact on the soul is hardly visible,

but the damage can be there for life.

Let’s not forget that what
distinguishes us humans from machines

is the beautiful
and the delicate soul within us.

Let’s try harder to save more Omars.

Thank you.

(Applause)

(Cheers)

(Applause)