14 December- PAHO held the Opening ceremony for its Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Coordination in Humanitarian Emergencies Virtual Course 2020-2021.
The MHPSS Coordination in Humanitarian Emergencies course, currently in English, is an intensive multidisciplinary training course, aimed at humanitarian program staff working in the aid, civil society or public sector who wish to gain competency in establishing and coordinating MHPSS Coordination in areas affected by complex humanitarian emergencies.
The course is designed to provide humanitarian actors with guidance on how to establish, organize and facilitate MHPSS coordination and strengthen current adjunct applicable skills for use in complex humanitarian emergencies and relief operations, such as needs assessments, monitoring and evaluation, understanding the humanitarian context, and self-care. It starts with an in-depth review of the most fundamental instruments in the humanitarian architecture & MHPSS field, leading to focused skills to coordinate actions in order to improve the effectiveness of the MHPSS response.
The Opening Ceremony featured presentations by Dr. Renato Oliveira e Souza, Chief of PAHO’s Mental Health and Substance Use Unit, Dr. Claudina Cayetano, PAHO Regional Advisor on Mental Health, Dr. Marcio Gagliato, MHPSS course coordinator, and keynore speaker Dr. Fahmy Hanna from the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use of the WHO.