Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services (MHPSS) for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Towards a Public Health Approach Beyond Diagnostic Categories

Following the massive influx to Lebanon of Syrians fleeing armed conflict, the UNHCR and various NGOs, in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), are providing Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services (MHPSS) for Syrian refugees. However little is known about the functioning of these services and their implications in terms of defining the experience of suffering of refugees. Methods: we conducted a study of MHPSS services based on a review of documents published by UNHCR, MoPH, and relevant NGOs, as well as the analysis of the discourse of health care professionals/policymakers. 60 semi-structured interviews were conducted with informants from various organizations. The questions focused on their experience with the services, the main challenges encountered and their perceptions of the Syrian refugees and their problems. The list of organizations was taken from a service mapping by the MoPh. Findings: MHPSS interventions in Lebanon endorse the Inter Agency Standing Committee Guidelines that prioritize community-based interventions. Yet, in practice they promote individual-focused, clinical and short-term interventions rather than long term ones. Health care professionals perceive Syrian refugees as lacking awareness on mental health disorders and needing education in this regard; but most of them lack knowledge about the Syrians’ patterns of social strengths and weaknesses and their perceived needs in terms of mental health. Conclusion: Based on our findings, we reflect on the relevance of “evidence-based” interventions in this particular setting and suggest recommendations for sustainable and culturally sensitive mental health interventions

Mental health services for Syrian refugees in Lebanon: perceptions and experiences of professionals and refugees

We applied semi-structured and in-depth interviews to explore the perceptions and experiences of 60 practitioners/policymakers and 25 Syrian participants involved in mental health services for refugees in Lebanon. Refugees were found to view their distress as a normal shared reaction to adversity while professionals perceived it as symptomatic of mental illness. Practitioners viewed Syrian culture as an obstacle to providing care and prioritized educating refugees about mental health conditions. Policymakers invoked the state of crisis to justify short-term interventions, while Syrian refugees requested community interventions and considered resettlement in a third country the only solution to their adverse living conditions. The therapeutic relationship seems threatened by mistrust, since refugees change their narratives as an adaptive mechanism in response to the humanitarian system, which professionals consider manipulative. We discuss the implications of our findings for mental health practice in humanitarian settings

Chromatic dispersion of liquid crystal infiltrated capillary tubes and photonic crystal fibers

We consider chromatic dispersion of capillary tubes and photonic crystal fibers infiltrated with liquid crystals. A perturbative scheme for inclusion of material dispersion of both liquid crystal and the surrounding waveguide material is derived. The method is used to calculate the chromatic dispersion at different temperatures.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures. Manuscript layout changed Feb. 10th 200

Qualität von Bio-Produkten. Bio - die bessere Alternative?

Die meistgenannten Erwartungen von Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten an die Qualität von Bioprodukten lassen sich wie folgt zusammenfassen: keine Pestizidrückstände, besserer Geschmack, besser für Gesundheit und Umwelt. Ein Überblick über die verfügbare Fachliteratur zeigt, dass Bioprodukte diese Erwartungen meist erfüllen. Die Frage, wie sich die gefundenen Unterschiede auf die menschliche Gesundheit auswirken, ist jedoch experimentell noch wenig erforscht

Bio - die bessere Alternative

Bio allein macht nicht gesünder. Aber Bioprodukte sind Bestandteil eines nachhaltigen und gesunden Ernährungsstils. Die meistgenannten Erwartungen von Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten an Bioprodukte lassen sich wie folgt zusammenfassen: keine Pestizidrückstände, besserer Geschmack, besser für Gesundheit und Umwelt. Ein Überblick über die verfügbare Fachliteratur zeigt, dass Bioprodukte diese Erwartungen meist erfüllen. Die Frage, wie sich die gefundenen Unterschiede auf die menschliche Gesundheit auswirken, ist jedoch experimentell noch wenig erforscht

Les services de santé mentale pour les réfugiés syriens

L’épreuve anxiogène de l’exil, l’expérience de l’habitat informel, une survie qui dépend des organisations non gouvernementales : voici un contexte psychologique explosif auquel sont soumis les réfugiés syriens au Liban. Cette étude consacrée au point de vue des professionnels de santé libanais révèle la construction d’une image particulière de leurs patients syriens : celle de victimes ayant besoin de d’aide. Loin de permettre de traiter les pathologies mentales provoquées par cette situation délétère, cette attitude du corps médical à l’égard des patients syriens tend paradoxalement à nourrir une vision négative de soi

Frequency tunability of solid-core photonic crystal fibers filled with nanoparticle-doped liquid crystals

We infiltrate liquid crystals doped with BaTiO3 nanoparticles in a photonic crystal fiber and compare the measured transmission spectrum with the one achieved without dopant. New interesting features, such as frequency modulation response of the device and a transmission spectrum with tunable attenuation on the short wavelength side of the widest bandgap, suggest a potential application of this device as a tunable all-in-fiber gain equalization filter with an adjustable slope. The tunability of the device is achieved by varying the amplitude and the frequency of the applied external electric field. The threshold voltage for doped and undoped liquid crystals in a silica capillary and in a glass cell are also measured as a function of the frequency of the external electric field and the achieved results are compared