WAITING FOR THE SUN. WHEN EVERY MEETING CARRIES LOSS
Press Release
The new and spacious premises for the expansion of the Department of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support at the Al Salam Hospital in east Mosul are ready. The construction of this new department was made possible thanks to funding from the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and the work of the NGO Un Ponte Per.
Rome, 23 December 2021 - Today, 23 December sees the inauguration of the new mental health and psychosocial support ward at the Al Salamhospital in east Mosul. Among the many personalities attending the event were Dr. Falah Al-Tai, Director of the Nineveh Health Department, Dr. Firas Aqrawi, Director of the hospital, and Dr. Muzahem, Director of the Mental Health Department of the hospital.
Prior to the Islamic State occupation and the complete destruction of the building in 2017, Al Salam Hospital was the largest hospital in the Mosul area. Since the end of 2017, the hospital has been a receptor for external support aimed at reconstruction and the re-establishment of essential services.
The hospital receives between 6,000 and 10,000 patients daily from the entire Nineveh governorate and the Mental Health Department was unfortunately severely limited - since the liberation from Daesh occupation - in the space and means available. Funding from the Italian Cooperation (AICS) in support of the "Salamtak 3" (Your Health) project, implemented by Un Ponte Per (UPP), has finally made it possible to build a new department, open to the entire population.
As of today, the department will have approximately 240 square metres of new inclusive spaces, new equipment that will allow cognitive therapies, drug treatments, psychological assessments and support for medical and school committees. The entire department has been completely moved to the new building, which has no less than 7 rooms, with the addition of 8 beds, dedicated to the variety of services offered.
The project to build the Mental Health Department at the Al Salam Hospital in Mosul was initiated with the aim of supporting mental health, psychosocial support and maternal and child health in the governorate of Nineveh, in order to provide humanitarian assistance to support the vulnerable population, displaced, refugees and returnees in Iraq after the recent conflict with the Islamic State.
Since February, more than 10,145 people have been reached through the project, including many with post-traumatic stress and various ailments. More than 3,000 women, adolescents and children have had access to reproductive health services and specific paediatric counselling, thanks to the presence of psychologists, gynaecologists, sonographers and paediatricians. Approximately 1,000 individual and group psychosocial support sessions were also provided. Thanks to the new department, the Al Salam hospital will become the nerve centre for mental health in the city of Mosul, to which the city's other two hospitals providing these services will also report.
"Salamtak 3" is part of a broader framework of interventions and specialised services that UPP, thanks to the valuable support of AICS, has been carrying out in Iraq, and in particular in the Nineveh Plain and Mosul, since the beginning of thehumanitarian emergency in 2014.
