Heartbeat of Humanity

In this episode of Heartbeat of Humanity, Ahlem Cheffi, PS Centre MHPSS technical advisor for the MENA region talks to Nisreen Qawas, MHPSS director for the Palestinian Red Crescent and Rim Alsakkaf, Psychosocial Support and Protection manager at the Yemeni Red Crescent about Caring for staff and volunteers when the workplace is a warzone. 

In this episode of Heartbeat of Humanity, Ahlem Cheffi, PS Centre MHPSS technical advisor for the MENA region explains the concept of supportive supervision. 

Supportive supervision is a safe, supportive, confidential and collaborative relationship between a supervisor and supervisee, and/or supervisees where supervisees can voice their difficulties, discuss challenges and be recognized for their successes, receive constructive feedback and emotional support, and build their technical skills and capacity, and enhance quality of service provision.

For the World Mental Health Day, it is important de remember that supportive supervision is part of duty of care to ensure the safety and well-being of their staff and volunteers.

In this episode of Heartbeat of Humanity, MHPSS Technical Advisor Shona Whitton talks to Antonia Mackay about how communities can build resilience to climate disasters and other shocks and hazards.

Antonia Mackay is the National Resilience Manager at Australian Red Cross, where she leads the organisation's disaster resilience programming, including key initiatives like emergencyRedi workshops and Redicommunities.

Resources mentioned in the podcast:
Navigating the climate crisis: Mental health and well-being report https://pscentre.org/resource/navigating-the-climate-crisis-mental-health-and-well-being/

Practical help and resources to use before, during and after emergencies
https://www.redcross.org.au/emergencies/

Red Cross RediPlan
https://www.redcross.org.au/emergencies/resources/

In this episode of Heartbeat of Humanity, MHPSS Technical Advisor Shona Whitton talks to Ana Mejia about mental health and the climate crisis.

Ana Mejia is a former member of the Youth Advisory Group of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, and a volunteer from the Ecuadorian Red Cross. Ana leads a Mental Health and Psychosocial Support team in the local Red Cross branch and she recently started to work as a consultant with the health team of the Red Cross Climate Centre.
 
Resources mentioned in the podcast:
https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/
https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA77/A77_R14-en.pdf
https://hub.connectingclimateminds.org

In this episode of Heartbeat of Humanity, MHPSS Technical Advisor Shona Whitton talks to John Richardson about disaster preparedness, disaster resilience and disaster risk reduction. And why it is a problem calling fires, floods and storms ‘natural disasters’.
 
 John Richardson is the Manager of Knowledge Development at the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience. Prior to his current role, John worked as the National Resilience Advisor with Australian Red Cross for more than 16 years. 

English text below

Dans cet épisode de Heartbeat of Humanity, Arz Stephan, conseiller technique SMSPSS, s’entretient avec Ahlem Cheffi, conseillère technique de SMSPS, sur les concepts de « dilemme éthique » et de « blessure morale » et sur leur impact sur les travailleurs humanitaires, y compris le personnel et les bénévoles de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge, qui font souvent partie des premiers intervenants. 

Une blessure morale est définie comme une détresse psychologique qui peut survenir dans le cadre du travail humanitaire, à la suite d’une exposition à des événements potentiellement moralement préjudiciables qui remettent en question notre morale et nos systèmes de croyance.

La blessure morale produit des sentiments d’impuissance, de désespoir et de honte. Le contraste entre la mission altruiste et humaine et les dures réalités auxquelles sont confrontés les travailleurs humanitaires peut conduire à une profonde détresse émotionnelle.

Un dilemme éthique se produit lorsque les impératifs humanitaires d’aider les autres, de sauver des vies ou d’alléger la souffrance d’autrui entrent en conflit avec d’autres principes humanitaires comme l’impartialité ou la neutralité. Le dilemme éthique survient lorsque les ressources disponibles, les obligations et les choix dans une situation spécifique ne permettent pas un résultat éthique.

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In this episode of Heartbeat of Humanity, MHPSS Technical Advisors Arz Stephan interviews MHPSS Technical advisor Ahlem Cheffi about the concepts of 'ethical dilemma' and 'moral injury' and how they impact humanitarian workers including Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers who are oftenamong the first responders. 

A moral injury is defined as a psychological distress which may happen around humanitarian work, following exposure to potentially morally injurious events that question our values and moral. Moral injury produces feelings of helplessness, despair and shame. The contrast between the altruistic and human mission and the harsh realities faced by aid workers can lead to profound emotional distress.

 An ethical dilemma occurs when the humanitarian imperatives to help others, save lives or alleviate suffering conflicts with the other humanitarian principles like the impartially or the neutrality. 

The ethical dilemma arises when the available resources, obligations and choices in a specific situation do not allow an ethical outcome.

In this episode Communication Officer at the IFRC PS Centre, Villads Zahle interviews project manager, Erni Kristiansen and project consultant, Bebbie Petersen about youth to youth Psychological First Aid (PFA) in Greenland. 

In this episode Communication Officer at the IFRC PS Centre, Villads Zahle interviews emergency expert and MHPSS technical advisor, Shona Whitton about the newly published Training Guide on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies. Shona outlines the potential of the new guide in the context of her professional experiences in emergencies and the mental health implications for exposed individuals and communities.  

In this episode of Heartbeat of Humanity, Sarah Kate van der Walt, Technical Adviser in the IFRC Psychosocial Centre and Monia Aebersold MHPSS, International Focal Point from the Swiss Red Cross, will be talking with Rebecca Horn Independent MHPSS Specialist on the importance of MHPSS evidence building in the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

 The episode introduces the MHPSS Evidence Building Toolkit and discusses challenges of National Societies with evidence-building and shows pathways to overcome these with best practice examples.  

•  MHPSS evidence building toolkit: https://pscentre.org/resource/mhpss-evidence-building-toolkit-repository/
• MHPSS evidence building report: https://pscentre.org/resource/promoting-mhpss-evidence-building-package-report/
• IASC MHPSS M&E Helpdesk webpage: https://mehelpdesk.mhpss.net/

In this episode Communication Officer at the IFRC PS Centre, Villads Zahle interviews Moaaz Allahham, a young Syrian man forced onto an irregular route to Europe, Maria Marga, an activist working for Collective Aid to assist people on the move at Serbia's border with the EU, and Sarah Harrison, an IFRC PS Centre expert on the pressures, stress and mental health implications of ongoing abuses along EU borders.