International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Abstract

The Middle East has lived decades of wars and displacements. More recently the world has witnessed major population displacements after the ISIS reign. Displaced as well as hosting communities experience traumatic events, cultural tensions and increase of the communitarianism and youth radicalization. This phenomenon contaminated the western world. This presentation will give an overview of the situation in the Arab region and will particularly focus on the case of Lebanon. The leading question will be whether the ongoing turmoil has created resiliency or helplessness in Arab children and adolescents. To try to give an answer, we will analyze the prevalence of mental health disorders in children and adolescents, the trajectories of posttraumatic stress symptoms in refugee population and the impact of the psychosocial interventions on their wellbeing. Future perspectives for more effective mental health and psychosocial supports are discussed.

Biography

Leyla Akoury Dirani has earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology from Paris. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. She provides clinical services and teaches medical students and clinical psychology interns. She is also the Director of the Child Protection Program and Member of the Ethics Committee at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. As a Scholar, she focuses her research on prevention and intervention studies in the field of child and adolescent mental health. She is also the current President of the Lebanese Psychological Association.

Email: la55@aub.edu.lb