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The authors describe community mental health in Palestine from several vantage points: Palestine's historical and current context of military/political violence under Israeli occupation, its health care system and system of mental health care, and the status of its mental health staffing and training. Vignettes illustrate characteristic challenges and opportunities for Palestine within the domain of mental health. The roles of cognitive behavioral therapy and psychoanalytic thinking are discussed in terms of current practice, with an eye toward policy planning for a fully integrated model of health care delivery. The authors argue that the values of justice, freedom, and human rights are fundamental to well‐being, and that the theory and practice of community mental health must support active resistance to violation of these principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study aimed to test whether social support, spirituality and mindfulness mediated the association between posttraumatic stress symptoms and suicidal ideation among Palestinians. The study sample consisted of 520 Palestinian adults selected using online tools. The findings of the study revealed that posttraumatic stress symptoms positively correlated with suicidal ideations (r = .32, p < .01), and negatively correlated with social support (r = −.34, p < .01), spirituality (r = −.16, p < .05) and mindfulness (r = −.72, p < .01), whereas suicidal ideations negatively correlated with social support (r = −.46, p < .01), spirituality(r = −.27, p < .01) and mindfulness (r = −.72, p < .01). Results of the path analysis showed that social support, spirituality and mindfulness mediated the association between posttraumatic stress symptoms and suicidal ideations. Developing intervention programs to enhance social support, mindfulness and spirituality to mitigate the effect of ongoing traumatic experiences among Palestinians is crucial to reducing suicidal ideations. Further studies are also recommended to investigate the role of potentially protective factors that may reduce suicidal ideations and appropriate techniques to deal effectively with traumatic and stressful events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on suicide and suicidal behaviour in Palestine and sets this in the context of political violence related to the Israeli occupation. Accurate data about suicide and attempted suicide are limited and as such a range of studies including those concerned with the wider Middle East and North Africa region are used here to describe the context for suicide. The article indicates some of the individual and societal risk factors associated with suicide in Palestine and reflects on the role of Islam and religious leaders in tackling the stigma associated with suicide. It describes current mental health services for those who may attempt to take their own life and then outlines the steps that the Ministry of Health is taking to develop a national plan in suicide prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the devastating and disproportionate effects of structures of violence that produce vulnerability in communities of color globally, including with respect to mental health-care provision. While coping and resilience are dominant mainstream frameworks to understand mental health in crisis--both in Palestine and elsewhere--the three contributors to this roundtable were asked to offer a rejoinder to that approach. They reflect on the pandemic as an opportunity to revisit how we understand and advocate for critical approaches to mental health in Palestine in the midst of prolonged crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report on episodes in which five professional mental health organizations—for the most part associations for psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy—have covertly tried to silence members who bring attention to the issue of human rights abuses inflicted by the Israeli occupation of Palestine. These various vignettes illustrate how the leadership of these organizations systematically attempts to limit the activism of their members, even in their "free time," and to forbid the introduction of discussion of Israel/Palestine into their newsletters, meetings, chatrooms, and other organizational venues—despite the fact that these organizations profess their commitment to exploring themes of social justice and to the principle of open dialogue. Implications and recommendations are discussed, particularly the practical need for transparency on the part of our organizations and the intellectual need for a more complete theoretical understanding of the roles of history, ideology, and collective meaning within mental life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental health is a key component of health, yet appropriate care is limited. Evidence concerning child and adolescent mental health has predominantly come from western countries, while the Middle East region, with a large youth population, has reported very little on it. This original, cross-sectional study of child and adolescent psychiatry in the Middle East provides an assessment of current postgraduate programs, services and what is needed to build workforce capacity. Academic psychiatrists from 16 Middle East countries were invited to form a Consortium to map current postgraduate training as one of the determinants of available child and adolescent psychiatry services, identify gaps in the distribution of child and adolescent psychiatrists, and propose potential steps to improve access to child and adolescent mental health care. The study collected data from 15 of the 16 countries invited (no data provided from Yemen). The study revealed underdeveloped child and adolescent psychiatry academic systems throughout the region. Despite recognition of the specialty in a majority of the countries (11/15), only six countries had established a designated child and adolescent psychiatry training program. The overall shortage of child and adolescent mental health specialists varied, yet all Consortium members reported a need for additional child and adolescent psychiatry specialists and allied professionals. Lack of child and adolescent psychiatry specialized programs in place throughout the region has evidently contributed to the shortage of qualified child and adolescent mental health workforce in the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) affects women from different cultures around the world. No previous studies have investigated PPD among women in Palestine. Fertility rates in Palestine are among the highest in the world, hence even low rates of PPD could have considerable national impact. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of, and risk factors for, PPD among Palestinian mothers. Methods: 101 mothers were recruited during the registration of their child's birth (within 1 week) at the Bethlehem branch of the Ministry of Interior. Participants were assessed via a face to face interview, and were followed up 1 week, 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months later by telephone interview. Interviews included the Arabic Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), with PPD indicated by depressive symptoms (EPDS score =11) at =2 follow-up time points. Pearson's correlation was calculated between repeated EPDS scores, and multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate risk factors for PPD. Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was fairly constant (14-19%) over the follow-up period. Most depressive symptoms developed within 1 month of delivery; mothers with depressive symptoms at 3 months postpartum were highly likely to still have symptoms at 6 months. 27.7% (28/101) of women met our criteria for PPD. High parity (odds ratio (OR) 4.52 (95% CI 0.90, 22.8) parity 3+ versus primiparous), unplanned pregnancy (OR 2. 44 (0.99, 6.01)) and sex of child not being the one desired (OR 5.07 (1.12, 22.9)) were associated with PPD, but these associations were attenuated in multivariable analysis. Conclusions: The prevalence of PPD in Palestine appears to be higher than in high income countries, but similar to the prevalence in other Middle Eastern countries. High parity and unplanned pregnancy were identified as risk factors for PPD, suggesting that fully meeting the need for family planning could reduce the incidence of PPD in the Palestinian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors, a Palestinian psychiatrist working in the West Bank and a Jewish American child psychiatrist in New York, report on varieties of problematic transference and countertransference phenomena observed among mental health clinicians and patients across the Israeli/Palestinian divide. Reciprocal transference and countertransference anxieties were asymmetrical, reflecting the broader power relationship between Israelis and Palestinians. The Israeli clinicians' need to regulate and to silence Palestinian 'aggression'-either real or presumed-interfered with empathy, trust, genuine dialogue, and learning. The authors suggest that, to account for these findings, the psychoanalytic model of collective trauma must be integrated with motivational models from other disciplines in order to capture the roles played by social forces such as political propaganda, the silencing of social dissent, and longstanding historical agendas of military and economic domination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study aimed to test whether social support, spirituality and mindfulness mediated the association between posttraumatic stress symptoms and suicidal ideation among Palestinians. The study sample consisted of 520 Palestinian adults selected using online tools. The findings of the study revealed that posttraumatic stress symptoms positively correlated with suicidal ideations ( r  = .32, p  < .01), and negatively correlated with social support ( r  = -.34, p  < .01), spirituality ( r  = -.16, p  < .05) and mindfulness ( r  = -.72, p  < .01), whereas suicidal ideations negatively correlated with social support ( r  = -.46, p  < .01), spirituality( r  = -.27, p  < .01) and mindfulness ( r  = -.72, p  < .01). Results of the path analysis showed that social support, spirituality and mindfulness mediated the association between posttraumatic stress symptoms and suicidal ideations. Developing intervention programs to enhance social support, mindfulness and spirituality to mitigate the effect of ongoing traumatic experiences among Palestinians is crucial to reducing suicidal ideations. Further studies are also recommended to investigate the role of potentially protective factors that may reduce suicidal ideations and appropriate techniques to deal effectively with traumatic and stressful events., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest exists., (© The Author(s) 2023.)