There is consensus that humanitarian actors should respond to the mental health and psychosocial needs of displaced populations through multisectoral action and coordination. Multisectoral programming may enable the integration of mental health and psychosocial support with services designed to address critical social and structural determinants of mental health including poverty, stigma, safety and security, and social connectedness and cohesion. In this presentation, Professor M. Claire Greene will describe findings from research that aims to design and test models of integrating mental health and psychosocial support with gender-based violence interventions, economic services, and social and community protection programs among displaced populations. She will explore some of the challenges to implementing multisectoral services that are unique to the humanitarian architecture including complex inter-agency coordination mechanisms and the financing and structure of humanitarian programming focusing on East Africa and Latin America.
M. Claire Greene is an Assistant Professor in the Program on Forced Migration and Health within the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University. Dr. Greene’s research focuses on improving the effectiveness and implementation of mental health and substance use interventions in humanitarian emergencies. Specifically, her research examines models of integrating mental health and psychosocial support across sectors as a strategy to improve the accessibility, relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability of these interventions. Dr. Greene is a member of the Steering Committee for the Columbia University Global Mental Health Program. She is an Editor of the Global Mental Health journal and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Refugee Studies. Dr. Greene received her PhD in Psychiatric and Substance Use Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology with a Global Health concentration from Yale School of Public Health, and postdoctoral training in Implementation Science and Humanitarian Health.