The Minister of Public Health, Dr. Rakan Nasser Al-Din, placed family mental health at the heart of public health priorities, warning of the profound effects that successive crises had on Lebanese families, from the economic collapse and the Beirut port explosion to displacement and the Israeli war, stressing that protecting the family psychologically has become an issue related to the health and stability of the nation.
Nasser Al-Din’s position came during his representation of the President of the Republic, General Joseph Aoun, at the opening of the fourth annual meeting of the Syndicate of Psychologists in Lebanon, which was held at the Movenpick Hotel – Beirut under the title “Contemporary Family Psychopathology: Thinking about the Current Psychiatric Clinic,” in the presence of the President of the Syndicate of Psychologists, Dr. Rajaa Makki, the representative of the Minister of Education, Dr. Hilda Khoury, and the Vice President of Caritas, President Mireille Haddad, in addition to a crowd of political, social, and medical figures.
The forum witnessed a series of specialized lectures throughout the day, which addressed the psychological and social challenges facing families in Lebanon and the transformations imposed by the crises on their structure and the lives of their members.
In his speech, Nasser Al-Din praised the Psychologists’ Syndicate’s persistence in organizing the forum for the fourth year in a row and turning it into a reference station for psychologists, researchers, and students. He thanked the Syndicate and its president, Dr. Rajaa Makki, for preparing the scientific program and choosing a topic directly related to what Lebanese families are experiencing.
He said that the family that specialists in the clinic and clinical trial are discussing is the same family that has had to absorb “one shock after another” in recent years.
He pointed out that since 2019, Lebanese families have experienced a financial and economic collapse that the World Bank classified as among the most severe globally in more than a century, before the Beirut Port explosion came on August 4, 2020, upending the lives of thousands of families, then the Corona pandemic and the isolation it imposed at a time when the Lebanese people desperately needed each other.
Nasser Al-Din pointed out that Lebanon still hosts, relative to its population, one of the largest numbers of displaced people and refugees in the world, while the Israeli aggression and renewed displacement imposed additional burdens on families who were once again forced to leave their homes and lands and try to explain what is happening to their children.
He stressed that “rarely have families of other nations been asked, in such a short period of time, to be so steadfast,” considering that research into family mental health is no longer just an academic exercise, but has become a matter of state affairs.
He explained that the crises affected the way the Lebanese family works, and the ability of the parents to exercise their role towards children growing up “between war, immigration, and the screen,” as well as the ability of the spouses and the family to remain together in the face of pressures that exceed the ability of any family to bear alone.
Nasser Al-Din stressed that the government considers mental health, and family mental health in particular, an integral part of public health, pointing to the role played by the National Mental Health Program in the Ministry of Public Health for more than a decade.
He pointed out that the program, led by Dr. Rabie Al-Shamai, implemented two national mental health strategies, the most recent of which covers the period from 2024 to 2030, with the aim of transferring care from isolated services to dignified and available community services.
He pointed to integrating mental health services into primary health care centers in various regions, and building a national network to provide first psychological aid and psychosocial support during crises, starting from the port explosion and the pandemic to the Israeli war and displacement.
He also touched on the development of low-cost digital interventions based on scientific evidence, noting that this work has received international recognition.
Nasser Al-Din stopped at the long path of regulating the psychology profession in Lebanon, pointing out the demand of generations of psychologists, since the 1970s, for official recognition, regulation, and legal protection of the profession.
He pointed to the path that led to the establishment of the Psychologists Syndicate in 2017, then the adoption of the law that gave it its full democratic and institutional structure in 2022, which provided the profession with a framework that regulates standards, licensing, and work ethics, and protects beneficiaries.
He stressed that the partnership between the state and the union does not stop at the legal framework, but rather extends to studying the pressures that are reshaping the modern family, from digital identities and new patterns of parenting to the ethical challenges facing psychological treatment.
Nasser Al-Din stressed the government’s intention to continue strengthening the psychology workforce within the health system, work to protect children and adolescents, and ensure that no Lebanese family is left to face its suffering alone.
He concluded by thanking the psychologists and researchers who accompany families in their most difficult circumstances, and congratulating the Psychiatric Syndicate on its fourth annual meeting.
The forum comes in light of the ongoing Israeli escalation in the south, where several towns today witnessed bombings, incursions, and booby-trapping operations, including Mays al-Jabal, Bani Hayyan, and al-Mansouri, which brings to the fore the psychological repercussions of war and repeated displacement on Lebanese families, especially children.
