Born in Haiti: A maternity hospital in the context of a humanitarian crisis

Abstract

This is a report on the experience of implementing a mental health program in a maternity hospital and three mobile clinics in the city of Port-au-Prince. We started by listening to the difficulties faced by the national teams in their daily routines at the hospital and what they expected of a mental health program. The program was planned in a way to contemplate the perceived needs of the hospital teams as well as those of the target population, pre and post-natal women, within a systemic perspective. Thus the program covered the following aspects: training with the hospital team on communication and helping relationships, a series of speeches on mental health at the hospital, psychological treatment of the patients through counseling sessions, involvement of partners and families being assisted, support groups for peri-natal mourning, men's groups with the future fathers, psychoeducation in the mobile clinics, a survey of the social network in the city, psycho-social assistance and the introduction of relaxation strategies at the hospital. We concluded that in the context of a humanitarian crisis, as in the case of Haiti, a mental health program should contemplate different levels of need and take into consideration that health care professionals are also subject to the context of social stress. At the same time, the involvement of hospital teams in the process is fundamental to the success of the program.