Our humanitarian assistance in Jordan and Bangladesh has been made possible by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and has taken place in collaboration with local NGOs JHASi and Friendship respectively.

How may mental health care be supported with digital tools?

Our research in digital health interventions in humanitarian crisis deliver health care to those most in need. We have worked with protracted refugee crisis with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and with Syrian refugees in Jordan where we have focused on providing responsible digitalisation within healthcare to deliver services to the refugees on mental health. In our experience, responsible digitalisation and innovative technologies can help – a reason why we are committed to extend the use of secure and efficient digital tools in humanitarian crisis.

At the end of 2020, there were 82.4 million forcibly displaced people worldwide (UNHCR 2021). Providing timely and adequate humanitarian assistance to people affected by a humanitarian crisis is thus an increasingly challenging task. The gap between the resources available globally and humanitarian needs is increasing rapidly (EC 2021). This situation represents a particular risk for so-called forgotten crises, defined as severe, protracted humanitarian crisis situations where affected populations are receiving no or insufficient international aid and where there is no political commitment to solving the crisis.

A Community Health Worker (CWH) walking from family to family to do mental health screenings.

A Community Health Worker (CWH) walking from family to family to do mental health screenings.

Mental health screening in the home of a refugee.

Community Health Worker using the Humanitarian Digital Health platform on a house visit.

Group therapy as well as individual counselling and therapy at the Jhasi clinique in the Zaatari camp.