Over 300 million people worldwide currently need humanitarian assistance as a result of conflict, climate change, political instability, and natural disasters. This growing crisis has created an unprecedented demand for mental health and psychosocial support, which is often overlooked during emergency responses.
To address this urgent need, WHO and its partners have developed the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Minimum Service Package (MSP). The MSP is designed to improve the scale and quality of emergency mental health responses by guiding humanitarian actors on the priority actions to take. It outlines which mental health and psychosocial support activities should be implemented in crisis situations and ensures that organisations across different sectors can coordinate their efforts effectively.
According to Dévora Kestel, Acting Director of WHO’s Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, the MSP provides clear guidance in emergencies where rapid decisions and funding allocations are critical. By offering step-by-step instructions, evidence-based tools, and best practices, it helps ensure that essential mental health and psychosocial support reaches those most in need.
The MSP is supported by several resources that enable practical implementation and capacity building. These include a user-friendly guide outlining urgent activities, a training workshop package with facilitator materials, and sector-specific quick-start guides to help integrate mental health support across different humanitarian areas. It also offers a monitoring and evaluation indicator bank to track the reach and impact of activities, a multi-sectoral assessment toolkit to ensure responses are evidence-driven, and a repository of mapping and assessment reports for knowledge sharing. Additionally, a global training database provides access to both in-person and online opportunities for strengthening skills in mental health and psychosocial support.
The MSP was developed through a wide interagency collaboration led by WHO and UNICEF, with contributions from UNHCR, UNFPA, and other humanitarian partners. Its creation was made possible through funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations. Together, these efforts aim to ensure that mental health and psychosocial support is not an afterthought in humanitarian crises, but a core part of the response that protects and restores the wellbeing of affected populations.
