When Laila Farhood, professor of psychiatry at the School of Nursing, was appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the mental health coordinator for Lebanon during and after the July war, she was asked to develop teaching material to train personnel to help the internally displaced. In that capacity from October 1 until October 24, she chaired a committee of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and nurses while executing the first phase of the program-training mental health professionals.

"My research interests entail outpatient care and research on the emotional and psychological effects of the war on the Lebanese people. Prior to this project, I was conducting similar studies in areas in southern Lebanon, where I am trying to assess the post-traumatic stress disorders among the local population. It was then that the WHO approached me to help them with a related task: training mental health personnel on how to care for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder," explained Farhood. She said the organization wanted to train representatives from the Lebanese Ministry of Health and some from professional entities, such as the Lebanese Epidemiological Association and the Lebanese Psychiatric Society.

According to Farhood, the biggest challenge she faced was the scarcity in health resources. "Even though Lebanon has a wide history of wars, it does not have any national mental health plan. Making up for this scarcity was what the workshop aimed for."

Farhood found the assignment extremely rewarding. "It is very interesting for a professor to get out of the academic world and work with people and with other organizations in Lebanon. I think other departments and faculty should be encouraged to extend their services to as many people as possible, because it is a very gratifying experience."

In explaining post-traumatic symptom disorder, Farhood said, "The factors that lead to trauma are direct and indirect. These include the impact of war, such as loss of life, loss of relatives and residences, disintegration, and the like. Post-traumatic symptom disorder does not manifest itself right away; sometimes it incubates and appears later."

Farhood will be working on successive phases of the project. "I personally plan to continue helping the people in the South as much as I can."