In the last two decades, Iraqi community has gone through many crises that have cast a shadow over the reality of social and economic life, especially the psychological ones, the great crises that accompanied the march of Iraqi community throughout these years burdened the Iraqis and caused the growth of many social and psychological problems, with loss of hope, and fear of the unknown future.

The Iraqi Red Crescent has adopted a program for psychosocial support (PSS), and through its implementation, the need arose to develop programs for psychological and mental health care, especially in areas that suffered from crises or conflicts, so the mental health was included within the health services program that provided by the mobile medical clinics of the IRCS, according to Dr. Ali Al-Musawi, director of health department at the IRCS, who explained: “The mobile medical clinics will work through their medical teams to diagnose and deal with such cases, and some cases that need special care will be referred to specialists psychiatrists or hospitals specializing in psychiatric and mental illnesses.

Al-Moussawi has added that doctors working in mobile medical clinics affiliated with the IRCS have been trained by psychological and mental health consultants from the British Royal College on the Global Health Curriculum (MHGAP) to develop their capabilities and abilities in treating some psychological cases, and how to refer the most complex cases to specialists in mental health centers.

According to data from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, suicide rates increased by 40% at the beginning of this year, reaching more than 770 cases, an increase of more than 100 cases compared to last year, which recorded 663 cases of suicide.

The cases of domestic and societal gender-based violence in 2021 reached (27,630) registered cases, and the Iraqi supreme judicial council indicated, according to its data, that drug addiction rates are 50% among young people, and that the upward trend in the spread of drug use has become a foreshadowing of an inevitable health disaster which less dangerous than Corona pandemic.

The director of health department pointed out that the selection of (6) doctors who were trained to be trainers in the field of psychological and mental health to train the psychosocial support staff in the IRCS on how to deal with psychological cases and refer them to doctors working in medical clinics to provide the required psychological treatments for them, he also stresses to develop an integrated plan to establish a center for the Iraqi Red Crescent for psychological and mental health and addiction, and to provide all its human and material requirements.