Protecting Mental Health in Emergencies

Living through an emergency takes a mental health toll. This is true for nearly anyone affected by emergencies, whether that emergency is more acute, like a natural disaster, or if it’s long-term, like living in a refugee camp during a period of conflict. Emergencies can cause fear, stress, and anxiety, sometimes over a long period. Sometimes it’s the emergency itself that causes mental distress—for example, a flood causing a person to lose their home. Sometimes, the emergency exacerbates existing or underlying mental health conditions and social issues—like how the COVID-19 pandemic drove a spike in anxiety disorders, especially among vulnerable populations such as Asian-Americans and immigrants due to increased anti-Asian and anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. 

For many people, the mental health impacts of living through an emergency will improve as the situation becomes more stable; however, some people go on to develop mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of their experience.

This year on World Mental Health Day, which is celebrated annually on October 10, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Federation for Mental Health are spotlighting mental health in emergency settings with the theme, “Access to Service: Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies.” This year’s theme represents the need to address mental health during emergencies and the challenges of sustaining access to services both in emergencies and outside of them. 

The effect that emergencies can have on the global burden of mental health disorders can be quite significant. The Pan American Health Organization estimates that 15–20 percent of people affected by humanitarian emergencies and disasters will develop mild or moderate mental health conditions, while 3–4 percent of people will develop severe mental health conditions. Combining these figures with the number of internal displacements (65.8 million in 2024) as a rough estimate of people affected by conflict and disaster each year, at least 11-15 million people develop mental health conditions due to emergencies every year.

Providing mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to those affected by emergencies is critical to mitigating mental health impacts and helping people recover more quickly. Such support might include a cohort of strategies that are typically visualized as a pyramid, with basic services and security at the base of the pyramid, community and family support in the middle of the pyramid, and more specialized or individualized services at the top. What this might look like in practice could be establishing a source of safe drinking water, creating a space for community gatherings, or providing clinical mental health care. The exact suite of approaches may vary based on what’s needed, but acting quickly to establish or re-establish basic services and a sense of safety (addressing the base of the pyramid) is essential for people to be able to talk about further mental health issues.

According to the 2024 Mental Health Atlas, which surveys 144 countries on their mental health policies, programs, financing, and workforce, 65 percent of responding countries reported having a MHPSS preparedness and response incorporated into their emergency response and/or disaster risk management systems. This is a major improvement from 2020, when only 45 percent of responding countries reported the same. The report suggests the COVID-19 pandemic was a driving factor in this improvement, citing a WHO assessment that showed more than 90 percent of WHO Member States integrated MHPSS into public health emergency response during the pandemic. 

But despite this encouraging progress, the COVID-19 pandemic also revealed systemic weaknesses and government missteps that impeded response to mental health impacts. To better address mental health, both during emergencies and outside of them, governments should focus on strengthening health systems and improving access to services, particularly in low-and middle-income countries where key gaps in service access remain. Also important is investing in trauma-informed systems, with policies and health workers that take into account how people with trauma and mental health conditions interact with health care. 

In a world with increasing global conflict, violence, and climate-fueled disasters, it’s more important than ever for countries to invest in mental health emergency preparedness, response, and service access. To learn more about the global burden of mental health conditions or mental health in emergency settings, check out our resource pack on Global Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders or explore the selected resources below.

Selected Resources

World Mental Health Day 2025 Campaign Toolkit, World Federation for Mental Health 2025

Fact Sheet: Mental Health in Emergencies, World Health Organization 2025

Mental Health Atlas 2024, World Health Organization 2025

World Mental Health Today: Latest Data, World Health Organization 2025

IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings, Inter-Agency Standing Committee 2007

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies (MHPSS), Pan American Health Organization