ANNEX V

REPORT OF THE WORKING GROUP 1

 PSYCHOSOCIAL/MENTAL HEALTH COORDINATION

          Permanent formal, national level psychosocial coordinating body should be established.  This body will be responsible for psychosocial preparedness and coordinating and mobilizing initial response to an emergency.  During the emergency it will also be responsible for policy development, minimum standards, programme framework development, mobilizing financial resources (through advocacy or authority to allocate government resources), monitoring and dissemination of information 

          Coordination should be intersectoral including major stakeholders, governmental organizations (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Affairs among others), religious/community-based organizations, local and International NGOs, professional associations, UN agencies, Red Cross/Crescent 

          Coordination should be lead by governmental ministry with highest capacity (time, influence, technical knowledge) supported as appropriate by international or national organizations 

          Lead agency for these coordination mechanisms to be determined on case to case basis according to capacity 

          National psychosocial coordination body should be linked to national disaster management body  

          Need to have multilevel coordination (national, provincial, district) 

          In response to particular emergency there is need to establish ad hoc task force/coordination mechanism (representative of stakeholders) at provincial/local level.  This coordination body will provide input into the policies, register and regulate organizations according to existing policies/standards, determine assessment and needs/priorities and coordinate activities at the field level 

          Two models of coordination: separate psychosocial coordination committee; psychosocial subcommittee of a broader committee 

          Coordination mechanisms have to be adjusted to the level of disaster and actors that respond to the disaster 

          There should be dialogue between national and provincial in setting policy and standards

         Need to ensure that there is an enforcement mechanism for minimum standards/policies and it is more effective for that to occur at provincial level 

         Coordination mechanisms should also play a role in advocacy with other coordination bodies e.g. shelter, livelihood etc. 

         Civilian nature of the coordination mechanism should be promoted/maintained 

         Coordination bodies should work with the media for two purposes: advocacy to ensure that media supports psychosocial healing and does not contribute to distress; use of the media for public information

 

Coordination Challenges 

         MoH is often the lead agency for coordination but is commonly not a very powerful ministry and risks to overly focus on mental health/health 

         Power struggles between governmental ministries regarding coordination and between governmental/NGO organizations and within NGOs 

         Difficulties to ensure community participation in coordination, policy and programming 

         How to reconcile differing priorities among stakeholders at different levels 

         Differing definitions e.g. psychosocial vs mental health 

         How to enforce/regulate minimum standards is a challenge esp. in emergency phase 

         How to deal with organizations who don’t want to coordinate?  Through insisting on registration/regulation? 

         One of the challenge is to choose the lead agency that is able to bring representative group of the stakeholders 

         As need increases the coordination becomes more complicated in general