Giving Compass' Take:

• Alison Fogg at Doctors Without Borders describes the mental health services in Rohingya refugee camps, and what assistance doctors are providing for this resilient population. 

• What kinds of mental health issues are the Rohingya refugees currently dealing with? What is the role of mental health within displaced populations?

• Here are some facts and figures about the Rohingya refugee crisis. 

Following Kamrul, one of the Bangladeshi mental health supervisors, I pause to catch my breath.

Men and boys pass me quickly, deftly negotiating the steep, bamboo-sided hill steps barefoot – balancing eight-foot bamboo poles on their shoulders, seemingly with ease in the 40-degree heat.

Lining the narrow stairway, rows and rows of small makeshift plastic and bamboo tents cram the steep, muddy hillsides, providing little protection from the intense afternoon sun and sticky May humidity, gathering ahead of the oncoming rainy season.

As a mental health officer for almost five months in the MSF Kutupalong project, I am in awe of my Bangladeshi and international colleagues.

It’s now May 2018, but my Bangladeshi mental health team colleagues have worked tirelessly since this crisis started on 25 August 2017.

It’s a daily privilege to work with the MSF team at Shanti Khana, or “place of peace” - the name chosen for the mental health department here - planning the training needs of our local staff and how best I can support them, given the considerable on-going emotional demands of the work.

Spending time in the project, the positive impact of the MSF mental health team’s day-to-day efforts becomes clearly evident.

Read the full article about mental health services in the Rohingya camp by Alison Fogg at Doctors Without Borders.