Providing Mental Healthcare in Lebanon
To mark World Mental Health Day (10th October), we’d like to share an update from our partner the Karagheusian Health Centre about the work they are doing amid a rise in mental health issues in Lebanon.
Karagheusian Health Centre, Beirut
The last three years have been devastating for everyone living in Lebanon. After the terrible Beirut Port Blast on 4th of August 2020, we started to receive many cases, especially children, who needed mental healthcare services. The continuing chaotic situation of political unrest, hyperinflation, disappointments, misery, distress and the lack of stability has meant the demand for mental healthcare services increased drastically. We have been working with trauma cases and severe anxiety situations and stressed people who, prior to this period, were self-sufficient, and functional in the community.
Affordable healthcare for all
With the help of Embrace the Middle East, we are able to spread a little hope by making healthcare affordable and attainable. The Karagheusian Association, Mental Health & Special Needs Department provide psychosocial services to all.
We have no special criteria for helping those in need: we help children and adults, males and females, and people from a range of different family backgrounds.
Young and old receive treatment at the Karagheusian Centre.
Our patients usually come from our catchment area - Bourj Hammoud, which has high levels of poverty. But in the last two years there has been a marked difference among the clients who sought help at our center. People who did not need our services previously, because they were well-to-do back then, are now on the poverty line and need support to afford medical and mental health care.
A holistic approach to health
We provide counselling and therapy services to help our patients handle emotional problems caused by poverty, stress, anxiety, depression and trauma and other difficulties in their daily lives and help them to become functional again in the community. A multidisciplinary team of doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, special educators, speech therapists, psychomotor therapists, and our social workers, work together to provide comprehensive psychosocial support to help change patients’ lives for the better.
Raising awareness of the issues of mental health is an important part of our work. Physical symptoms can often be linked with mental health issues. All patients coming to any of the medical departments will be assessed for depression and emotional wellbeing.
Maria’s story
Last year 39-year-old Maria came to the centre because of severe back pain. A family doctor gave her the check-ups she needed and there was nothing physically wrong with her. Her symptoms were caused by severe depression due to a very stressful life situation: the Covid lockdown, loss of her job because of lockdown and currency depreciation, and trauma from a broken long-term relationship. This had left her feeling extremely sick and hopeless and she had problems getting up in the morning and she struggled with daily tasks.
She couldn’t believe her back pain was because of her stress but she started therapy and through it, she learned about the effects of depression on the body and mind. Her sessions gave her a safe place to think out loud, to shed tears, to express anger and disappointment, and to understand her own worries.
After following through with her sessions for about 6 months, Maria was able to find work again and in time her depression symptoms stopped. She continued coming to her sessions even after her finding a new job until she felt able to manage her stress better and deal with past painful events.
Improving mental health in Lebanon
Last year, we provided 18,775 individual therapy sessions by the different specialists and 357 psychiatric consultations. Each patient is encouraged to initiate guided self-help plans and think of possibilities for themselves, so that our interventions became more meaningful and individual.
Our staff educate patients that depression and anxiety and stress are treatable and can be controlled if patients allow themselves to receive help. This approach is helping with stigmatization issues, denials of seeing problems, and denial of parents to accept children’s problems. Creating awareness of the existence of mental healthcare services and what can be achieved through them has promoted self-referrals to therapy and care.
Through this combination, we believe we have promoted improved mental health states for our patients and helped them become hopeful, and willing to continue their struggles to survive in the very difficult situations they are living in, here in Lebanon.
We at Karagheusian are extremely proud of surviving all the difficulties we faced during the last year and the preceding one. We will always strive to keep our quality of services, and to keep them accessible and affordable for everyone.
