Inter-Agency Coordination Turkey Health Sector | Q2 January - June 2017
REPORT from World Health Organization, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
WHO UPDATE
Primary care
WHO continues to train Syrian health staff living in Turkey to adapt to the Turkish health care system. From April to June, some 665 Syrian doctors & nurses (out of 1,020 in 2017) completed the adaptation training of WHO - supported adaptation courses in seven of Turkey’s refugee health centres. Following completion of courses and on-the-job training, they can be recruited to work in health centres serving refugees. In 2017, the programme has made possible approximately 150,000 linguistically- and culturally-sensitive medical consultations for refugees and migrants. The Ministry of Health has already hired more than 400 of these trained Syrian health personnel to work in more than 80 refugee clinics throughout Turkey.
Vaccination
The second round of a vaccination campaign for refugee children was held in mid-May. Technical and logistical support was provided to the MoH to implement the campaign. Vaccination was free offered to all children regardless of their legal status, focusing on 20 provinces that host 90% of the Syrian population in Turkey. More than 360,000 refugee children were reached in 2017 of which 58,000 in second quarter, checking on vaccination status for the diseases including measles, diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, and hepatitis B.
Mental health
For the World Health Day on April 7th, WHO worked with its mental health partners to organize community awareness-raising events about depression, the theme of the day focusing on the Syrian refugees in southeastern Turkey. Turkish- and Arabic-language materials about depression were distributed in the country’s public health facilities and refugee clinics. In partnership with Turkey’s Ministry of Health, WHO trained more than 100 Turkish family physicians in its mental health programme, along with 100 registered Syrian doctors who are already in WHO’s training for refugee health workers. The doctors learned how to identify and treat depression, schizophrenia, suicidal thoughts, dementia, substance abuse, epilepsy and other conditions.
UNFPA UPDATE
Some 168 people received the trainings on health mediators, EmOC, family planning, ante-natal care and post-natal care. A total of 51,796 people were reached via reproductive health services by the end of 2nd quarter. Health Working Group Meeting and the Inter-Sector Working Group Meeting were held on on a monthly basis in Gaziantep where vaccination campaign, NGO Clinics online mapping and the South East Turkey data mapping exercise were presented for coordination purposes. Inter-sector workshop on communication with communities was attended with an aim to come to a common understanding of the gaps and challenges in terms of CwC coordination in South-East Turkey, to agree upon a proposed framework for “Young and Refugee” International Good Practices Conference organized with the financial support of Government of Japan in the context of empowerment of Syrian youth project; an international event which will bring good practices from organizations working with Syrian youth groups in various host countries and young people in humanitarian settings. This conference aimed to share and disseminate good practices in addressing young people’s needs and challenges in humanitarian settings with potential solutions in the areas of; youth participation, youth health, prevention of gender based violence and social cohesion.
