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Mental health specialist

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Mental health specialist

Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) mental health specialists work to provide psychological or psychiatric care to communities impacted by conflict, disasters, or disease. 

Resilient, compassionate, and focused, their work is essential to helping people rebuild their lives. This can be through counselling, psycho-social support, or, in some projects, medication.  

Our counsellors are often members of the local community, specially trained by MSF. They receive clinical supervision and support from highly qualified mental health specialists such as psychologists and psychiatrists.  

Read the blog posts below to find out more about life as an MSF mental health specialist, or click here to find out more about applying to join the team. 

Marilen Osinalde - MSF psychologist
Marilen Osinalde
Mental health specialist
Mental health in Palestine: “It shows strength to ask for help”
Psychologist Marilen Osinalde explains how mental trauma can build-up, and the hope that can be found in seeking support
28 Sep 2020 / 6 minute read
Kateřina Šrahůlková - MSF child psychologist
Kateřina Šrahůlková
Mental health specialist
Overwhelmed: The mental health crisis among child refugees in Greece
What is life really like for "unaccompanied minors" held at the infamous Moria camp in Greece? Psychologist Kateřina shares this incredibly powerful account of treating trauma and searching for hope.
13 Aug 2020 / 11 minute read
Raman, MSF Belaurs
Raman Vishneuski
Mental health specialist
"Small steps towards healing": Tackling TB and alcohol addiction in Belarus
When alcohol is your primary coping strategy, giving it up can feel impossible. But when you recieve a diagnosis of another life-threatening disease, the need to do so becomes more urgent, and more challenging. Raman blogs from Belarus...
15 May 2020 / 1 minute read
Margaret Ngunang
Margaret Ngunang
Mental health specialist
"I will leave this project with wonderful memories": Reflections of a first-time fieldworker
For seven months, US mental health specialist Margaret has been providing support to people living in Bentiu, a Protection of Civilians site in South Sudan. The camp offers protection to those fleeing violent conflict in the region and is home to more than 100,000 people, as well as an MSF hospital. Margaret reflects on her first field assignment with MSF. 
14 Jan 2020 / 4 minute read
Margaret Ngunang
Margaret Ngunang
Mental health specialist
Movie Night: Mental Health in South Sudan
A long stay in hospital is stressful for anyone, but especially for children. Mental health specialist Margaret shares a creative approach from a UN camp in South Sudan...
10 Nov 2019 / 3 minute read
Christian Falkenstein MSF
Christian Falkenstein
Mental health specialist
I still have a suitcase in Minsk...
... it will stay there too, which has a meaning of its own. This is how the journey lasts. And if I long to, then I’ll go back… (With apologies to Marlene Dietrich)
23 Oct 2019 / 4 minute read
Margaret Ngunang
Margaret Ngunang
Mental health specialist
The beauty of movement: Helping young minds in South Sudan
Hospital is a tough environment for any child, let alone those whose families have lost almost everything. Mental health specialist Margaret explains why, despite conflict, displacement and illness, it’s vital to provide opportunities for kids to simply be kids…
09 Sep 2019 / 6 minute read
Nurse dispensing medication in a TB dispensary
Christian Falkenstein MSF
Christian Falkenstein
Mental health specialist
TB in Belarus: Facts and figures show us the way
Impressions can be deceiving. For Christian, a German psychotherapist working in Minsk, facts and figures show what really works.
09 Sep 2019 / 5 minute read
Belarus
Addiction
Data collection
Multidrug- Resistant Tuberculosis
MSF counsellor with a patient
Christian Falkenstein MSF
Christian Falkenstein
Mental health specialist
TB in Belarus: Two steps forward, one step back
At an MSF tuberculosis project in Belarus, German psychotherapist Christian learns how to be patient with progress...
26 Jul 2019 / 3 minute read
UK mental health specialist Alison Fogg with the team in Bangladesh
Alison Fogg - MSF
Alison Fogg
Mental health specialist
“The love for your child is good”: Mental health and the Rohingya crisis
How do you care for people's mental health when the situation around them is so unstable? British mental health officer Alison Fogg shares her experience of treating Rohingya people inside the world's largest refugee camp.
25 Jul 2019 / 6 minute read
Christian Falkenstein MSF
Christian Falkenstein
Mental health specialist
Half-time in Minsk
As he passes the half-way point of his time working at an MSF tuberculosis project, psychotherapist Christian reflects on six months in Belarus…
04 Jun 2019 / 4 minute read
An MSF team member examines a patient with multidrug-resistant TB in Minsk
Christian Falkenstein MSF
Christian Falkenstein
Mental health specialist
TB in Belarus: "Discuss, argue and take patients seriously"
Overcoming tuberculosis (TB) requires a lengthy and careful treatment. However, in Belarus, many patients are also battling another issue: alcohol addiction. German psychotherapist Christian Falkenstein writes about putting patients at the centre of their own care… 
16 May 2019 / 3 minute read
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