Haitian kids playing in front of a house in Carrefour Feuille, Port-au-Prince, destroyed in the earthquake, 12 January 2010. American Red Cross/Chloe Gans-Rugebregt

HAITI: AN OVERVIEW OF PSYCHOSOCIAL WORK BY THE RED CROSS RED CRESCENT

5 February 2010
Thousands of people have already benefitted greatly from the many psychosocial support measures that have been taken in Haiti, in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck on 12 January 2010, nearly four weeks ago. This is the first operation ever, where psychosocial support is an integrated part of Red Cross Red Crescent emergency response. Psychosocial delegates and volunteers have worked alongside doctors, nurses and paramedics in two Emergency Response Unit (ERU) hospitals, one run by the Norwegian and the Canadian Red Cross, the other one by the German Red Cross. The result of that work has been very positive.

Work of the IFRC and National Societies

In each hospital, local Haiti Red Cross volunteers have received training in psychological first aid and emotional support by IFRC psychosocial delegates. Since then, the volunteers have been assisting around 150 people a day, with a strong focus on children that are either unaccompanied, injured or both. Every day, the whole team attends to hospitalized children that are on their own.

Child-friendly spaces, where children from both the hospital and surrounding communities come to play, are currently being planned. Transfer and registration of separated children and unaccompanied minors, with the assistance of UNICEF and the ministry of social affairs, have also taken up a great deal of time.

The IFRC psychosocial delegates have been providing group support to volunteers, whose own basic needs in some cases have not been covered. Like the rest of the population, the volunteers are severely affected by the earthquake, just as those they are trying to help. It is therefore of high importance to let them know that they are being supported, for them to keep active and able to support others. Hospital staff, that work under an immense pressure, also get their share of attention from the IFRC psychosocial delegates and volunteers.

The French Red Cross is working in partnership with the Haitian Red Cross, and again, the focus is on children. Around 20 volunteers have been trained to give psychosocial support, reaching approximately 450 children a day, in health posts in Petionville, a suburb east of Port-au-Prince. The French are also working with a local psychologist and musicians doing street theatre for different age groups of children.

With regards to staff support of the French Red Cross, light debriefing has been given to 15 local staff who were in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck. A work shop and diffusing has also been offered to the relief team of the French and the Haitian Red Cross, working on evaluation, mapping and distribution of non food items. The American Red Cross has also been focusing on the helpers, providing them with psychosocial support.

Current and future needs

Focus in the coming weeks, with regards to the IFRC, will be on continued supervision and team building, training more volunteers and assessing future long-term interventions. A hospital morgue is being organized where families will be able to spend time with the deceased, in order to help them grieve and mourn, which is a part of one’s recovery, having lived through a disaster.

Protection of separated children and orphans will remain high on the agenda. Tracing and restoring family links plays a big role in the psychosocial support in coming days, weeks and months. It is also necessary to raise community awareness of orphan’s needs, with the aim of encouraging their inclusion.

In Haiti, many people have lost limbs during the earthquake. Amputees and disabled will be needing psychosocial support in the near future. The same goes for those who are HIV positive or living with AIDS. Prevalence rates were already high prior to the quake and the past has shown that pre-existing problems are magnified in disasters and post-disaster settings. Gender based violence and psychosocial support, is also an issue that urgently needs to be addressed.

One of the difference between this operation and past ones is that the Inter-agency Standing Committee (IASC) Reference Group on mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) has been very active in sharing information on ground action and coordination efforts. On www.psychosocialnetwork.net, information on psychosocial work is accessible to all. The IASC MHPSS Reference Group has even deployed a MHPSS global level coordinator who will spend the next couple of months in Haiti.

Finally, psychosocial support has been unusually high on the agenda of the international media, psychosocial delegates have given numerous interviews. Detailed coverage of psychosocial work, both in newspapers and in international television outlets, helps stressing the importance of psychosocial support as an integrated part of future emergency operations.