The COVID-19 pandemic served as an accelerant for mental health distress across all settings, while also highlighting the importance of addressing mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian contexts. Approximately 22 percent of adults in conflict settings have mental health conditions, 2 and many more experience mental health distress that is undiagnosed or does not reach diagnostic levels but still contributes to suffering. Notably, these rates of mental health distress and disorders are likely underestimates since comprehensive data on mental health prevalence are lacking due to the stigma around mental health, a lack of mental health professionals, and the inability of individuals to access mental health services, especially in conflict settings.
While humanitarian contexts present unique and heightened mental health and psychosocial stressors for everyone, children in conflict settings face these toxic levels of stress during crucial stages of their development. Exposure to these heightened levels of stress during childhood contributes to depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders as well as disruptions in cognitive, social, and emotional development, leading to lifelong negative health and mental health consequences. 3
Mental health conditions and distress can prevent individuals in humanitarian contexts from receiving the full range of benefits from foreign assistance programming. There is also growing consensus and focus on supporting the mental health needs of humanitarian workers, with the International Committee of the Red Cross reporting similar levels of risk for mental health distress among humanitarian workers and the communities they work with.