Addressing Mental Health Crisis among Armenian Refugees: WHO’s Commitment and Efforts to Provide Immediate Support

The World Health Organization (WHO) is dedicated to scaling up Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) services for Armenian refugee and host populations. The organization has identified this as a critical need, as it has been seen that the influx of refugees from the Karabakh region has resulted in an ongoing acute mental health crisis.

To address this crisis, WHO has established a mobile team that travels weekly to affected communities to provide immediate MHPSS support. Over 973 individuals have received MHPSS consultations so far, with 16% being children and 35% being older people. In addition, WHO is working on building the capacity of the MHPSS hotline, where operators are available to provide support, referrals, and assistance to callers experiencing anxiety, depression, or suicidal thoughts. Over the past six months, 10 operators have received specialized training and have responded to a total of 4546 calls.

Vahan Simonyan, a psychiatrist on the mobile team, emphasizes the ongoing acute mental health needs in the population. He notes that after six months of providing support, they are diagnosing more long-term and chronic conditions like depression among refugees with existing mental health histories who are showing severe signs of distress. Additionally, WHO has provided individual sessions to burn patients and their families for psychological support. Over 1262 individual sessions have been provided to 149 individuals so far. Furthermore, WHO has conducted trainings and capacity-building sessions on basic psychosocial skills, self-care