Trauma in the Middle East: Arab Spring, winter or summer - Abstract
Since the Iraq War and the Arab Spring, the Middle east has been experiencing repression, terrorism and conflicts, The tragic situation in many Middle Eastern countries caused not only increased trauma related mental health problems but also reduction of the professionals and facilities that could help treat these problems due to the migration of qualified medical and psychological staff looking for security for them and their families somewhere else. This in addition to the targeting and destruction of many health and mental health facilities. There is as a result a of both pharmacological andpsychotherapeutic treatments and very few specialist mental health centres or mental health assessment tools of any description.
The refugee crisis also has created massive mental health problems in its own right where even when therapists are trying to help these refugees they do not find appropriate place to hold psychotherapy sessions. One of the main recommendations of this paper is that the only way to meet Middle east people’s and refugees’ trauma mental health needs is through a Middle East EMDR project similar to the Mikong Project in South East Asia which not only trains therapists but
also employs them [1].