Andres Barkil-Oteo, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale, is working with a team of clinicians providing mental health services to 90,000 internally displaced people in nine camps in Northern Iraq.
Barkil-Oteo is a psychiatrist consultant and adviser with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which delivers emergency medical aid worldwide to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care.
MSF in October was awarded the 2017 Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health by the Brain & Behavior Foundation, and Barkil-Oteo’s project was featured in this video.
“MSF doctors and nurses are often seen treating physical ailments: bandaging the war-wounded, rehydrating a cholera patient, or performing an emergency cesarean section. But for more than 20 years, MSF has also been providing vital psychiatric and psychological care to people ravaged by man-made or natural disaster,” the foundation stated in its award announcement. “The organization currently has mental health related programs in 41 countries across five continents treating adults and children who are victims of armed conflict, natural disasters, sexual violence, neglect, psychiatric disorders and disease outbreaks.”