Mental health needs and services in the West Bank, Palestine

Background Palestine is a low income country with scarce resources, which is seeking independence. This paper discusses the high levels of mental health need found amongst Palestinian people, and examines services, education and research in this area with particular attention paid to the West Bank. Methods CINAHL, PubMed, and Science Direct were used to search for materials. Results and conclusion Evidence from this review is that there is a necessity to increase the availability and quality of mental health care. Mental health policy and services in Palestine need development in order to better meet the needs of service users and professionals. It is essential to raise awareness of mental health and increase the integration of mental health services with other areas of health care. Civilians need their basic human needs met, including having freedom of movement and seeing an end to the occupation. There is a need to enhance the resilience and capacity of community mental health teams. There is a need to increase resources and offer more support, up-to-date training and supervision to mental health teams

Bioremediation Potential of Bacteria and Rice Husk Biochar for Cadmium and Lead in Wastewater

 Wastewater can be purified greatly when treated with biochar derived from natural rice husk. The present study provides the impact of bacteria (biofriend), commercial activated carbon, rice husk, and its biochar {pyrolysis at 300oC (RHB1), 400oC (RHB2) and 500oC (RHB3)} on synthesized and natural wastewater purification. The obtained results can be summarized as follow: RHB3 considered the best adsorbent ability for cadmium and lead in their single and mixed solutions. The presence of commercial activated carbon by the comparison it is found that it exceeds RHB3 in the case of lead. Rice husk resulted high adsorption values for cadmium and lead, but its adsorption of cadmium exceeds the lead. Addition of biofriend increase adsorption of cadmium and lead in most treatments but results still in the same trend as using rice husk or biochar only. RHB3 treatment observed its superiority and ability to purify lead and cadmium from synthesized and natural wastewater after 4 h contact time compared with other treatment under study