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Author(s): Michael Oboye*
Protecting and improving people’s
mental health and psychosocial well-being in humanitarian
crises has recently emerged from its
‘humanitarian ghetto’ (Wessells, 2009) towards acceptance
as a fundamental and essential part of any
post-humanitarian emergency provision. Yet, this
newly emerging field of mental health and psychosocial
support (MHPSS) has a long way to go before
acceptance and full integration as an evidence-based
component of all post- conflict and post-disaster interventions.
This is because this incipient field is
hampered by gaps in practitioners’ field experience
(IASC, 2007), a scarcity of rigorously evaluated research
studies (Jordans, Tol, Komproe, Lasuba, Ntamutumba,
et al. 2010) and inadequate training of
international humanitarian psychologists who deliver
these MHPSS interventions in the field (Wessells,
2009). In order to avoid the many pitfalls of inadvertently
causing harm through good-intentioned yet
ultimately detrimental practices, there is a need to
incorporate new emerging insights (IASC, 2007) and
learn from the experiences and oversights of others
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