Gaza Crisis and Mental Health : Another Report from The Rafah Crossing

[fahmy bahgat]

Dear All,     22 days and this War is still going on. Ceasefire has just been announced. Our DMH Team still here at Al Arish General Hospital. i remember on 27th of December ,When all this started . When only one psychiatrist was sitting, looking from time to time to his watch and to the news and wondering if the wounded will be allowed to cross these border Gates. About 400 injured crossed these Gates together with at least one member of their family accompanying them . The MOH DMH team grew in the first week into a multidisciplinary team of five MH professionals  . MH professionals has been doing follow up visits at Cairo General Hospitals for the referred cases , according to the assessment they receive from DMH Teams at North Sinai. Volunteers are participating in providing social and Basic needs support for injured and their accompanying relatives. It was like a snow-ball effect having all these volunteers quickly enrolled and participating in the team .What started as providing our private cellular phones of the team members for helping families checking the safety of their beloved ones back home modified by one of the volunteers into a deal with a Mobile Network that provided us with SIM Cards with a discount on calls to Gaza and free minutes within Egypt , which meant to us easier access to our clients during their stay here , who started from their side   to call our team and we started providing psychosocial support using mobile phones  which then  was further developed into a FREE HOT LINE that will provide psychosocial support for Palestinians in Egypt to be launched this week. Our Helping the helpers sessions, started to be going like a daily routine. Many developments and upgrades , But How much is enough .  Too Much will not be enough!!. The amount of pain and loss we meet daily is beyond the ability of words to describe. Healing the psychological wounds that this war has caused will cost much more time than what it needs to rebuild the destructed Gaza Strip .   A 40 year old who loss; mother , pregnant wife , four sons ,his brother whole family, a life saving and a house ; (Grief is a very simple word here ) ,we have worked with dozens of below 20 youngsters with amputated both limbs ( Grief?), and i was trapped for 3 days under the stones..i saw the dogs eating 30 dead bodies of my family" A 13 yrs old Palestinian child said to one of our Team members. Cease Fire means that We may not hear that noise , and the sky will not glow at night and this building will not shake this scary shakes while i am sleeping . It means these counter of dead bodies and injured will stop! But for my clients it doesn’t mean that pain will stop! The psychological wounds that these shelling and artillery has caused will remain for months and Years even among those who have no physical loss . Now, I remember the names of my clients that i mentioned in my notes that they are dissociated; have the time arrived that most of them appreciate their losses now ? the time of real psychological pain and suffer has started for them , and the pain will be louder when no one is around them any more . I remember the young lady who was badly injured when she told me she was injured while playing on her house Roof with the Pigeons together with her brother & sister. A rocket fall on us, My sister is a martyr now and my brother , you know doctor what I think The Pigeons are Martyrs too .then she asked me seriously ; Don’t you think that Pigeons who die because of shelling are Martyrs, also? Children, Adolescents, Elderly, women, ……Pigeons were victims of this war. Psychosocial support will be needed for a very long time at Gaza Strip. I appreciate every email i received from our colleagues. Your email has been very supportive, encouraging and helpful. Will continue to keep you updated on all work here.                                                    Best Regards .                                                                                                Dr.  Fahmy Bahgat

[Boris Budosan]

Dear Dr.Fahmy,   Thank you very much on the update on the situation in Gaza. Also, my respect for your continious efforts to help affected people. It is for me also interesting how difficut situations stimulate people's creativity. I am refering to your mobile Hot Line. I remember that during the war here in the Balkans, we were even able to establish a Community Mental Health Center in Croatia, which was first community mental health center in the Balkans. We were organizing various peer-support groups for IDPs from Croatia and refugees from Bosnia.   And yes, it is impossible to describe with words the amount of pain and suffering people experience in a war situation.     All the best Dr.Boris Budosan, M.P.H. Psychiatrist --- On Sat, 1/17/09, fahmy bahgat <fahmy...@yahoo.com> wrote:

[James Okello]

Dear Fahmry, thank you for sharing your experiences.its difficult to say we can relate to your experience although your strength is your clients sense of hope.although trauma is very personal,the Gaza experience is unique in many ways.we wish your team all the strength.