Overview

This new volume presents a holistic scenario of the challenges of providing mental health and psychosocial support to areas around the world with the most vulnerable populations during the tragic COVID-19 pandemic. The book synthesizes over 350 interviews with mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) professionals on the ground in countries around the world, discussing the lack of services and providing strategies for implementing mental health and psychosocial support in such situations going forward. The book is a first look at MHPSS during the COVID-19 pandemic with the hope that it will inspire and generate action for future worldwide mental health and psychosocial support responses. This essential book is a call to action for cultural, linguistic, and contextual actions that addresses inclusiveness of the most vulnerable and unheard communities and that re-establishes resilience through mental health and psychosocial community-led programs. The volume is an analysis by a seasoned humanitarian worker with over 30 years of direct experience with the most vulnerable communities, with contributions from several colleagues. They help frame COVID-19 as a systemic loss of protective factors, where communities collapsed psychologically, socially, and economically.

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9781774912904

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"""An essential read for both mental health and psychosocial support professionals, as well as disaster and crisis leaders and practitioners. Dr. Prewitt Diaz weaves together framing and subject matter expertise that builds on academic research pre-COVID-19 pandemic, emergent literature from 2020 and 2021, as well as key case studies. Most relevant, Dr. Prewitt played a key leadership role in the IFRC America’s COVID-19 operation, supporting the 35 countries that make up the region in designing and implementing robust mental health and psychosocial support programming. . . . Thank you for this vital contribution to the robust mental health and psychosocial support field!""—From the Foreword by Dr. Jono Anzalone, Executive Director at The Climate Initiative, Portland, Maine"

"""An essential read for both mental health and psychosocial support professionals, as well as disaster and crisis leaders and practitioners. Dr. Prewitt Diaz weaves together framing and subject matter expertise that builds on academic research pre-COVID-19 pandemic, emergent literature from 2020 and 2021, as well as key case studies. Most relevant, Dr. Prewitt played a key leadership role in the IFRC America’s COVID-19 operation, supporting the 35 countries that make up the region in designing and implementing robust mental health and psychosocial support programming. . . . Thank you for this vital contribution to the robust mental health and psychosocial support field!""—From the Foreword by Dr. Jono Anzalone, Executive Director at The Climate Initiative, Portland, Maine “This book travels the communities who, at the end, with the MHPSS model developed individual and collective resilience to overcome their needs and develop behavioral responses to successfully manage those experiences in times of COVID-19. The case studies in the book make it possible to discriminate between the real needs of individuals within each community, leading researchers and service providers to the development of those members of the communities within the context of another disaster. The MHPSS model scientifically collects those best practices to attend, alleviate, develop appropriate behavioral responses, and survive in these times of Covid-19, that have altered the mental health of the population throughout the world. Finally, we cannot lose perspective that this pandemic has changed the way people live, the way of working, studying, interacting, even the way of appreciating and loving.” — Aida I. Rodríguez Roig, EdD, Chancellor, University of Puerto Rico at Humacao"

Author Information

Joseph O. Prewitt Diaz, PhD, is a practitioner-scholar who began his career as a public health worker in the depressed villages of his native Puerto Rico. He was formerly a professor at Pennsylvania State University, where he trained over 120 PhD-level educational leaders. He served as a mental health volunteer at some of the major disasters in the United States, among them the Oklahoma City Bombing and the 9/11 United Recovery in Shanksville, PA. In 1998, he was assigned to International Disaster Services where he implemented mental health and community psychosocial support programs in South America and Southeast Asia. He has worked in over 57 countries as the mental health technical expert for the IFRC/ COVID-19 work group. During his years of service, he received multiple national and international awards for his service, research, and scholarly contributions.

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