Panel details

Panel organiser(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online
Number of paper presentations	4
Location	Istanbul

Abstract

This panel explores innovations in MHPSS in crisis-affected settings, particularly in regions such as the Middle East, East Africa, South Asia, and other protracted conflict zones. It highlights how local knowledge, community-based healing, and culturally grounded practices can challenge dominant humanitarian mental health frameworks, which often overlook the political, historical, and social dimensions of trauma.

In recent years, a growing body of practitioners and researchers, especially from the Global South, have called for decolonised, context-sensitive MHPSS approaches that move beyond standardized and clinical models. This panel invites contributions that explore psychosocial liberation: approaches that foster collective care, emotional resilience, and ethical healing rooted in local realities rather than externally imposed frameworks.

By centering locally developed methods, indigenous knowledge systems, and community narratives, the panel aims to surface transformative models of MHPSS that address both emotional recovery and the structural roots of distress. It particularly encourages reflections from those working in contexts of conflict, forced displacement, marginalisation, and systemic neglect.

This panel is timely as MHPSS in humanitarian action is increasingly politicised, underfunded, and constrained by Global North-centric paradigms. It offers a critical space to rethink MHPSS in ways that are responsive, ethical, and grounded in local agency and knowledge.

We welcome contributions from practitioners, scholars, and community actors who are reimagining MHPSS through the lens of dignity, resistance, and context-based care.

Paper presentations