Afghans’ mental health services badly outdated: “Killings, executions, massive persecution, forced internal displacement, fear from living with hidden land mines, long-term unemployment and security concerns have left an indelible mark on Afghans’ psychological health. People complain of depression, anxiety and insomnia.

But mental health services are outdated and practically nonexistent.” Miami Herald There is a strain of thought that dismisses such concerns in this way — “Well, of course, you’d be depressed or anxious too if…” — erroneously suggesting that a population ravaged by war is not worthy of mental health intervention. And the profession as a whole has not risen to the challenge of dealing with the terror of the 20th and now the early 21st century as a massive public mental health problem. Reconstruction governments in troublespots throughout the world should be inviting in teams of mental health experts to consult on designing nationwide public mental health interventions; and training in dealing globally with a war-torn populace and individually with victims of war trauma, refugees, and asylum-seekers should become commonplace in mental health training programs, since it appears this human problem is not only not going away but growing in magnitude…