Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD-ASAM)

Humanitarian workers face a number of stressors on a regular basis such as listening to traumatic life stories, bearing witness to violence and its aftermath, working in unsafe environments, away from their families and loved ones.

The coronavirus pandemic has added new stressors such as limited resources, not being able to connect with beneficiaries face-to-face, managing mental health issues stemming from isolation.

Although there is a growing recognition of the mental health risks that humanitarian workers face and their consequences for the quality of services provided to the beneficiaries, unfortunately, the budget for staff care is still usually either low or non-existent which leaves many humanitarian workers with limited psychosocial support.

Our goal is to provide guidance to humanitarian workers for protecting their own mental health and bolstering their psychological resilience over time. The mobile app will enable humanitarian workers to self-evaluate and access relevant information on topics such as resilience, grief, burnout, stress management and coping skills. In addition, the application will provide an opportunity for humanitarian workers to interact with others who have faced similar challenges.

The app will provide information and guidance regarding mental health to staff who do not have access to a staff counsellor or staff who want to access support during off hours and over holidays. Moreover, there is still a lot of stigma associated with seeking out help from a counsellor /psychologist. Even those who do not think it is shameful do not know necessarily what to expect from a counselling session. For them, this mobile app could help reduce the barrier to getting psychosocial support.