2022 Humanitarian Response Plan for Gaza and West Bank
in specialised personnel, specialised facilities and the availability of drugs,
exacerbated by a longstanding challenge of integrating mental healthcare
into essential health services. Mental health is underfunded in the health
care system (physical lifesaving activities are instead prioritized during
crises) and MoH not able to deal with the growing issue, including
specialised services for people with severe mental health disorders.69
While Level 1 and 2 of MHPSS services of the IASC Intervention Pyramid are
available across all governorates of the Gaza Strip. While Level 3 non-
focused specialised services and Level 4 specialised mental health services
are being offered by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
(GCMHP) and the MoH, these fail to answer the high demand (Child
Protection Working Group 2019).70
Further, Family Centres are underfunded with USD1.3million budget gap
end of 2021 and an estimated 63% of people with disability lacking access
to MHPSS services and an estimated 137,000 caregivers in need of MHPSS
services.71 Despite this high demand for services, just over 10% of
Palestinian children in Gaza in need after the May 2021 escalation received
MHPSS services by the end of March 2022, according to the reporting by
the Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CP AOR).
In Gaza, there are currently 92 trained PSS counsellors, but this is not
sufficient to meet the need. 72 A social welfare mapping assessment in 2020
identified 503 social welfare staff in the Ministry of Education (MOE), 601 in
UNRWA, 238 in the Ministry of Social Development (MOSD) and 34 in the
Мон.
A welcome development is the MOSD's National Social Protection Registry
funded by the World Bank and currently under development, which aims to
expand support to vulnerable families, beyond the original poverty-related
69 lbid
70
payments, to comprehensive case management and referral services,
including referrals to the private sector.
Risk 3.2: Partner responses and capacities
MHPSS services under the Protection Cluster are coordinated with the
Health and Education Clusters. Inter-sectoral MHPSS activities for children,
including those with distress symptoms and exposed to violence, and
caregivers (particularly males) including psychological first aid, structured
psychosocial support through age and gender-appropriate individual or
group interventions, suicide and para-suicide prevention, supportive
parenting programming, clinical mental health and psychosocial services
targeting beneficiaries with severe symptoms through the support of
mental health professionals. Provision of MHPSS services to adults and
youth including structured psychosocial and awareness sessions to increase
resilience using positive coping mechanisms. Key actors train and support
service providers on MHPSS guidelines and MHPSS skills such as
psychological first aid, problem solving, active listening, detection and
referrals including referrals to mental health specialized service providers.
In the ongoing context of COVID-19, partners continue to provide both in-
person and remote services to enhance availability, accessibility, and
continuity of specialized services for mental health support. Partners
promote mental health and psychosocial well-being among staff, frontline
workers and volunteers through training and awareness sessions in self-
care, conducted both in person and remotely.
Risk 3.3: Humanitarian needs and gaps
72
Mass scale-up of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)
is needed to respond to the mental health crisis: from psychological
first aid, structured psychosocial support, suicide prevention, case
management, clinical mental health services. Scale up requires
https://www.ochaopt.org/content/escalation-gaza-strip-west-bank-and-israel-flash-update-9-
covering-1200-18-may-1200-19-may
Ibid
71 OCHA, Humanitarian Needs Overview opt 2022
17View entire presentation