Stories From Patients & Staff

For decades, Médecins Sans Frontières has provided comprehensive mental health support to people around the world. From psychological first aid in an emergency setting, to mental health services alongside care for pre-existing conditions, to standalone psychosocial and psychiatric care, here are some of the ways our teams are responding. 

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, the danger of patients waiting too long to seek treatment is all too clear to MSF staff responding to the crisis.

Dr Rachel Lister, an intensive care doctor from New Zealand, spent six weeks working in MSF’s COVID-19 treatment centre in Aden. She highlights three patients' stories that had a profound impact on her during her field placement in Yemen.

Dr Khairil Musa, an intensive care doctor from Sydney, reflects on his time working with MSF in Aden, Yemen

Nicholas Menner, an electrician from Goolwa, South Australia, worked with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Malawi in mid-2019. He was involved in constructing the new operating theatre and inpatient ward opened in Blantyre in December 2019 to begin surgical treatment for cancer patients.

Aucklander Vanessa Cramond’s work with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has taken her from Zimbabwe, to Sudan, Syria and the Amsterdam Emergency Support Desk over more than 12 years.

Across Bangladesh, the number of people suffering from COVID-19 has climbed persistently since March, with more than 149,000 cases reported. 

For patients in the paediatric ward at Goyalmara, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)’s mother and child hospital in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, COVID-19 is causing significant issues with accessing routine health care.

Mohammad Hashim was the first patient at MSF’s newly opened COVID-19 treatment centre in Gazer Gah hospital in Herat, western Afghanistan. Like many of those in Afghanistan, Mohammed was initially sceptical about the existence of COVID-19. When he first got symptoms, he tried traditional medicine, but as his condition deteriorated, he made the journey to hospital. 

The mental health effects of self-isolation and restricted movement have been widely discussed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. But what if that isolation was not self-imposed—and there was no end in sight?

With the COVID-19 virus only recently emerging, there is limited evidence to tell the story of how women and girls are affected. But what is already known is the life-threatening impact on women and girls when essential sexual and reproductive health services are compromised or denied during a large-scale emergency. 

It has been one month since the attack on the maternity wing in Dasht-e-Barchi Hospital. Here, Melbourne-based Dr Katherine Franklin reflects on how the tragic event conflicts with memories of her time working in the project in 2016.