About Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Network

Our Mission Statement

MHPSS Network aspires to improve mental health and psychosocial well being in emergencies and situations of adversity by improving access to people, resources and knowledge.

Our Purpose

  • Enable dialogue and collaboration amongst people and diverse communities of practice
  • Share state of the art practice and resources
  • Facilitate peer support

Our Guiding Principles

  • Flexible and evolutionary
  • Clear remit and structure
  • Pluralistic and inclusive
  • Local context at the centre
  • International agents as support
  • Light in terms of structure and process
  • Sustainable in terms of structure and finance
  • Realistic goals

Our Main Functions

  1. To provide an accessible platform where documents can be posted, accessed and reviewed
  2. To act as a gateway to existing resources and networks
  3. To facilitate the development of thematic and geographical communities of practice
  4. To enable connections between people, knowledge and resources
  5. To provide on-line workspaces/forums
  6. To inform users of new content that reflects their interests

Our Face-to-face community

The website is only one of the tools towards building a MHPSS community. The aim of the face-to-face community is to leverage and un-tap new resources by creating linkages between people. Networkers will have a proven record as ‘connectors’ in their own sphere (geographic or professional) and will be supported by the Network to enrich and extend this role.

The Stewarding Group

The stewarding group, a maximum of eight individuals, was constituted based on institutional and personal purpose as well as in the interest of representing a diversity of geographical regions, professional competences and personal skills.

  • Alison Strang, Queen Margret University
  • Brighton Gwezera, REPSSI
  • Ananda Galappatti, The Good Practice Group
  • Lene Christensen, IFRC
  • Sabine Rakotomalala, Terre des hommes-Child Relief (Lausanne)
  • Jonathan Robinson, The Hub

Support to The Network

The MHPSS Network is fortunate to have received financial and in-kind contributions from UNICEF (New York Headquarters), UNHCR (Geneva Headquarters), WHO (Geneva Headquarters), IFRC (Secretariat in Geneva & Psychosocial Support Centre in Copenhagen), Terre des hommes-Child Relief (Laussane), REPSSI (Secretariat, Johannesburg), Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland (Edinburgh), The Good Practice Group (Colombo) and individual practitioners based in both high-income and developing countries.

To make a contribution to the network, please get in touch with Alison Strang (astrang@qmu.ac.uk).