Haiti Plans Psychosocial Support for Students Ahead of School Year
The Health and Education ministries are deploying trained facilitators to help students traumatized by armed-group violence.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Days before the start of the school year, Haiti's Ministry of Public Health and Population and the Ministry of National Education (MENFP) are strengthening their collaboration to support students suffering psychological trauma linked to armed-group violence, according to Le Nouvelliste.
As part of the national strategy for mental health in schools, 150 facilitators have already been trained and will soon be deployed to educational establishments to provide close, community-based psychosocial support, the MENFP said. The ministry also plans to make psychologists, doctors and nurses available to students.
The initiative falls under the previously launched "National Strategy for Mental Health in Schools." The reported measures come as many Haitian children face displacement and exposure to violence caused by armed groups, conditions that officials say have generated widespread psychological distress among the student population.
No further details were provided by Le Nouvelliste on the timeline for the facilitators' deployment or the number of schools to be covered.