Mental health care in Lebanon

2023-07-18 08:00:03

Shortage of medicines, increase in hospitalization costs, medical emigration… The Lebanese health system is bearing the brunt of the economic crisis, in a country whose currency has lost 98% of its value in just over three years. Civil war, explosion of the port of Beirut in 2020, political instability… The Lebanese are confronted with many traumas.

How to treat patients with mental disorders in such a context, while mental health remains a taboo in Lebanon ?

• In Beirut, at the Hôtel-Dieu de France, one of the reference hospitals in Beirut, hospitalization in the psychiatric department costs several thousand dollars per week. These costs are not reimbursed, even by private insurance. Some NGOs like Doctors Without Borders et Embrace can finance the care of certain patients in precarious situations, and presenting a risk for themselves
• In the Bekaa plain, in the east of the country, the NGO Humanity and Inclusion offers community mental health outreach and consultations with psychologists.

► A report of Charlie Dupiot, in Beirut and Zahle, in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon.

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