As part of the action program to meet Mental Health needs, the Mental Health Unit (USM) of the Ministry of Public Health with the support of the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization Health (OPS/WHO) and Catholic Relief Services organized a training aimed at strengthening the skills of healthcare personnel from the 4 health directorates in the south of the country (Nippes, Grand'Anse, South and South-East) in the field of mental health care.

Hit by a major earthquake on August 14, 2021 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34681-haiti-earthquake-latest-assessment-of-civil-protection.html the populations of the Great South had to face a an emergency situation that has generated in many people, different mental pathologies.

It is therefore essential that healthcare providers at all levels be able to provide initial psychological assistance to people in distress and able to use the drug approach as well as the community approach in the psychological management of mental disorders.

Coming from health structures in the 4 departments, the nurses and doctors who participated in this training were able to acquire new skills for a week in the diagnosis and understanding of certain pathologies as well as their management.

This training is all the more important in Haiti, subject to repeated major natural hazards, community and domestic violence as well as endemic socio-economic problems that can cause psychological distress which can then turn into psychiatric disorders. Nurses and doctors, with the support of Polyvalent Community Health Agents (ASCP) applying psychological first aid, will strengthen the first level of care in this area, one of the priorities of the USM Unit of the Ministry.

This type of training will be replicated in the rest of the country's departments in the coming months.

IH/ iciHaiti