Community Mental Health Good Practice Guide: Inclusive Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Humanitarian Emergencies

This document provides guidance on inclusive MHPSS programming in humanitarian emergencies. It is designed to highlight essential frameworks and principles, and the need for robust and sustainable MHPSS programming, rather than to provide detailed MHPSS technical guidance.

MHPSS mainstreaming is identified as best practice where capacity exists and contextual conditions are in place, and it underpins CBM Global’s work in community based MHPSS approaches which are holistic and person-centred, and go beyond the health sector only.

The Guide further highlights a number of standalone MHPSS interventions and explores how these can be facilitated in a way which supports persons with disabilities, including people with psychosocial disabilities, and outlines the approach needed in order to do no harm and maintain best practice in supportive inclusive MHPSS.

The core components of MHPSS responses outline the steps needed to ensure a participatory, inclusive MHPSS approach, and highlights the need to continue to develop a set of robust, appropriate and flexible indicators which can be used in MHPSS programming in humanitarian contexts.