Mental Health in Palestine: Country Report

Individuals living in Palestine face obstacles in daily living and in the access of mental health services that are unique to the Palestinian context. Social and political disruptions, starting with large-scale displacement of the indigenous Palestinian population during the 1948 Nakba and continuing with the occupation, have brought the population under considerable psychosocial stress. Such disruptions have fragmented the delivery of mental healthcare and are the distal cause of numerous barriers to care. Palestinian mental health professionals and partnering colleagues ought to work towards an integrated system of care in which patients are seen as core members of interdisciplinary mental health teams, in which mental healthcare is integrated with the rest of medical care, in which Palestinian mental health professionals and institutions form mutually enriching long-term partnerships with international colleagues and institutions, and in which mental healthcare is integrated into a broader agenda of public health, human rights, and social liberation.