Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Disaster Risk Reduction

In DRR-MHPSS sessions, we always use the analogy of a psychosocial house.

We say: “For better understanding, let’s compare a person to a house. To build a house where people can live, we need different materials that we put together to make a complete structure, a good and strong house. If some elements are missing, taken away or destroyed, then the house can fall down, and it will not be longer a place for people to live in comfortably.”

The DRR-MHPSS collaboration first introduced in DIPECHO IX was an inspired experiment. It required first ever collaboration between ACF’s Mental Health and Care Practices (MHCP) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) departments, with MHCP in the technical or architectural role; and DRR in the line management or civil engineer role. We learned together how to, and how not to, build resilience.