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Telemental health care provides much-needed support to refugees

Nature Human Behaviour volume 6, pages 751–752 (2022)Cite this article

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To the editor — There are over 82 million displaced people in the world at the time of writing, and this number is expected to increase to 1.2 billion by 2050. The need for mental health care in emergency situations has grown substantially, considering the extent of conflicts, disasters, climate emergencies and war in the context of global population growth1. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has certainly captured the attention of the world, and nobody knows how the situation will resolve. However, with over 5 million refugees having already fled Ukraine, and millions more internally displaced, mental health support will be urgently needed in the affected areas2.

It is extremely important to form a trauma-informed mental-health response in trauma-afflicted areas, and technology can have a key role in addressing this need. In times of war, almost all who flee experience some form of trauma. The conditions that cause the trauma include preflight fear that puts the brain in a fight-or-flight mode, followed by the actual displacement causing stress owing to the uncertainty of the outcome and challenging living conditions. These dramatic changes in the environment can lead to a fear response that becomes intense and prolonged3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Psychology, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Selin Yıldız Nielsen

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Bagcilar Research and Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

    Eser Sağaltıcı

  3. Department of Psychology, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Onur Okan Demirci

Authors
  1. Selin Yıldız Nielsen
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  2. Eser Sağaltıcı
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  3. Onur Okan Demirci
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Correspondence to Selin Yıldız Nielsen.

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Nielsen, S.Y., Sağaltıcı, E. & Demirci, O.O. Telemental health care provides much-needed support to refugees. Nat Hum Behav 6, 751–752 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01366-y

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