CCRP volunteer extrodinare Leslie Schroeder is working overtime to write us a quick reference guide to mental health for the survivors of the earthquake. These guides will be translated into Creole and distributed throughout the camps of Port au Prince and other localities with large refugee populations.
Mental health awareness and care is greatly lacking if not almost non-existent in Haiti and with the undeniable impact of the death of 350 000 Haitians in less than 30 seconds the need for such information is inexpicable.
A trained crisis counselor and Winnipeg based social worker, Leslie has been spending all of her spare time consulting with Haitian diaspora, other professionals, reading books and World Health Organization guidelines and gathering cultural context to meet her self imposed deadline of July 5 and to produce a small concise and simple guide which can help raise awareness of the mental health challenges survivors face.
In a few weeks, she will be getting on a plane and flying down to Port au Prince to see first hand the challenges of the situation and to conduct a feasibility study into training small clusters of youth on basic mental health support so that they can share this expertise with community, family and friends.
It is physically and logistically impossible to address the mental health needs of literally MILLIONS of survivors and we hope that these guides can assist in promoting a culture of community self help and mutual support.
We are looking at total initial project costs of between 2000 and 3000 US dollars which will cover printing and distribution of thousands of copies of our mental health guide. Any help in rasisng these funds, or contributions would be greatly appreciated. Please contact us at ccrphaiti@gmail.com.
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