May-August,2022
- Program description/introduction
The project is designed to improve emergency preparedness and response , and to improve access and availability of quality primary and secondary health care by building the capacity of communities through enhanced provision of mental health and psychosocial services to these hard- to-reach areas as well as these IDPs in Beletweyne district. HIDIG organization bring together various components necessary to create a holistic system that is gender sensitive and responsive to crisis and to the needs of residents of the target people, including vulnerable populations in hard- to-reach locations. Given the precarious security situation in Beletweyne district Hiran region and Somalia in general the project will focus on providing adequate referral mechanism to these mental health population in order to develop the right competencies and address appropriate gaps through integrated emergency response target locations. Expected outcomes for the Project are:
- Improved plans at the community and facility levels, in place to mitigate the impact of man-made and natural disasters and reflect the different needs of men, women, boys, girls, and marginalized/vulnerable persons.
- Be able to deliver targeted and complementary prevention and treatment programs for nutrition, Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), rehabilitation services, and other primary health care (PHC) needs, strengthening the continuum of care from community to health facility with special attention paid to the needs of men, women, boys, girls, individuals with disabilities, and older persons.
- Increased capacity of existing project staff, to result in reduced percentages of cases referred out of the target location for specialty care.
In view of the above the project was able to rally behind the specific community needs in the target location and as of this end quarter reporting period the project was able to established enhanced referral mechanism and coordination with local actors in Beletweyne such as Hilwa, RI, save the children and DRC Somalia as well as effective coordination with Beletweyne hospital
- ACTIVITYIMPLEMENTATIONPROGRESS
Through the two health facilities and three IERT team HIDIG will ensure to provide psycho-social support including clinical management of rape and other form gender-based violence including the disable group as well as provide referral mechanism to ensure the GBV cases are handle in confidential and care requirement will liaise both partners working on GBV and child protection for any further related assistance as well as the local authority and community leaders in the target location.
Through well trained IERT Team, HIDIG has managed to reach 38 case (28 women and 10 girls), With the project target being overall 110 which is 35.5% achievement in this reporting period. This was achieved through a process that involved both group sessions as well as individual sessions.
The HIDIG team has provided a multi-layered psychosocial support and mainstreaming of MHPSS, the work of the teams can be consolidated in recreational, counselling, community and/or resource centres. The psychosocial counsellors will ensure to provide counselling and community-based support for people with severe mental disorders including clinical management of rape and other form gender-based violence as well as provide referral mechanism to ensure the GBV cases are handle in confidential and care
3. Challenges
The following were challenges noted during this reporting period
- Few resources centres(self-spaces) for counselling on high number of people with trauma and mental disorder hence leaving many with needs on appropriate mental and psychosocial services interventions
- High stigma among the population specially disables persons with mental health issues hence disengaged from the general population
- Poor community perceptions on mental health issues hence not seeking any mental health psychosocial counselling services
- Lessonslearnt
Mental health integration into primary health care services promotes the wider population with needs on mental health services coverage hence this activity was enabled to ensure that many men, women and children with mental health disorders to have access to enhanced mental health and psychosocial services