Page 35 - Revista FRONTAL Edição Especial iMed 12.0

HUMANITARIAN LECTURES

ESSAM DAOD MD

MENTAL HEALTH ASSISTANCE: A FUNDAMENTAL NEED

AUTHOR
CAROLINA ALMEIDA

Dr Essam Daod is a Palestinian trained to evaluate these refugees. This has been Rights in Barcelona.
psychiatrist and psychotherapist who grew made possible through Humanity Crew’s Essam also overlooks all projects,
up in Israel in a small Arab Palestinian vil- collaboration with the Spanish lifeguard alongside Adv Maria, and ensures that they
lage in the Galilee. He specialized in child organization, Proactiva Open Arms. Lead- are medically correct and adaptable. In
and adolescent psychiatry and graduated ing research in the field of refugee mental 2018, he became a WHO mental health ex-
from psychoanalytic school. During many health, Humanity Crew ultimately hopes pert team member and the first Palestini-
years, Dr Daod was involved in a peace- to raise the profile of mental health care an citizen of Israel to become a TED Fellow.
building initiative with kids through the- as a fundamental aspect of emergency There are still many refugee children
atre. He is also a mental health rights ad- humanitarian crisis response. After being in dire need of mental health assistance.
vocate, lecturer and the co-founder and registered as an organization, Humanity However, Daod’s efforts have gone a long
mental health director of Humanity Crew. Crew began its first mission on the island way to help and will continue to do so, par-
In 2015, he flew to Greece for a hu- of Lesbos in November 2015 and worked ticularly as he now aspires to expand Hu-
manitarian rescue mission on the Greek continuously throughout 2016. In 2016, Dr manity Crew’s efforts into Asia, to assist,
island of Lesbos, when the refugee crisis Daod and Humanity Crew were awarded among others, the Rohingya people suf-
was rapidly worsening, and witnessed The Defenders of Refugee Rights Award at fering from one of the worst genocides in
the unspeakable suffering and trauma of the 4th Edition of Cities Defending Human recent history.
thousands of refugees arriving from the
Middle East, Asia and Africa. And so, he
and his wife Adv Maria Jammal, a lawyer
who was providing counsel to the refu-
gees, founded a humanitarian aid agency
named Humanity Crew, alongside psy-
chologist Mohammad Mansur and other
professional volunteers. Humanity Crew is
an international aid organization special-
izing in the provision of psychological aid
to refugees and people in crises, working
to deploy mental health and psychosocial
support to displaced populations in or-
der to improve their well-being, to restore
order in their lives and to prevent further
psychological escalation. It seeks to create
a world in which mental health support
is a fundamental component in all emer-
gency efforts for victims of humanitarian
crises. With an operating base in Greece,
Humanity Crew recruits, trains and deploys
mental health professionals and qualified
volunteers to deliver psychosocial services
to refugees and displaced populations to
improve refugee well-being and prevent
further psychological trauma.
The Humanity Crew provides men-
tal health intervention right at the boat,
even before getting refugees on land,
with mental health lifeguards on hand
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