Humanitarian coordination
In its active role within the IASC MHPSS Reference Group, which WHO has co-chaired for eight years, the organization collaborates closely with other UN agencies, NGOs, and academic institutions to establish practical, culturally appropriate standards that harmonize MHPSS approaches across different humanitarian emergencies. These comprehensive guidelines range from psychological first aid to specialized mental health care, adaptable to various emergency contexts.

 The IASC MHPSS Reference Group, comprising over 60 member organizations, serves as a global coordination forum to enhance the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of individuals affected by emergencies. Through this platform, WHO has played an active role in strengthening interagency coordination and driving collective efforts to address needs in acute emergencies, prolonged humanitarian crises, and public health emergencies.

Surge support
WHO has a leading role in providing technical support to the interagency MHPSS surge mechanism by co-chairing a steering group. During an emergency, agencies and governments can request rapid support from the mechanism. The MHPSS experts dispatched through the mechanism provide interagency support to enhance the overall effectiveness of the humanitarian response, and their deployment is integrated into various sectors such as health, protection, education, and nutrition. Since 2022, WHO has provided MHPSS support missions to more than 45 countries facing emergencies.

WHO provides technical guidance to the Interagency MHPSS Surge Mechanism in close collaboration with the IASC MHPSS Reference Group Steering Committee with the operational support from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs finances the Interagency MHPSS Surge Mechanism.

 MHPSS is one of WHO's most deployed profiles through its Standby Partners. To read how you can engage with the mechanism as an (inter)national organization, donor, or expert, please visit the website here.

Essential medicines
WHO supports the availability of essential psychotropic medicines during emergencies by setting standards and facilitating procurement based on estimated needs and coverage.  This includes ensuring relevant content within emergency health kits, such as the updated Interagency Emergency Health Kit for collaborative rapid procurement; and the WHO mental health kit for pre-procurement at WHO humanitarian hubs. Through WHO's work in 2024, around 2.1 million people with severe mental health conditions in emergencies have improved access to essential life-saving psychotropic medicines.

Essential mental health services in emergencies
mhGAP Humanitarian Intervention Guide (mhGAP-HIG) is WHO’s approach to integrating mental health, brain health, and substance use care into primary and other non-specialized health care for non-specialists in humanitarian emergencies, where access to specialists and treatment options is limited. WHO and UNHCR developed the clinical guidance as a simple and practical tool to support general health facilities in areas affected by humanitarian emergencies in assessing and managing acute stress, grief, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychosis, epilepsy, intellectual disability, harmful substance use, and risk of suicide. To support implementation, both agencies developed the mhGAP-HIG Training Package and mhGAP Operations Manual. WHO published the story of change describing efforts in countries to build evidence-based mental health systems in humanitarian emergency settings using the mhGAP-HIG.

Key tools and guidelines
To address the diverse mental and psychosocial needs of people affected by emergencies, a multi-sectoral and multi-layered response is necessary. With partners, WHO sets inter-agency standards and engage in day-to-day operations to provide MHPSS in emergencies. The MHPSS Minimum Service Package outlines a set of activities that are considered to be of the highest priority in meeting the immediate critical needs of emergency-affected populations, based on existing guidelines, available evidence and expert consensus. Since 2023, more than 2 000 humanitarian actors were reached with MSP workshops.

WHO has developed various other resources to help implement quality MHPSS during emergencies. This includes widely used guidelines, such as the IASC MHPSS guidelines, handbook of MHPSS coordination, and common monitoring and evaluation framework for MHPSS, relevant psychological interventions and a guide on psychological first aid for field workers. WHO has developed practical tools and guidance to support different groups of people during emergencies, from basic psychosocial support skills for responders to coping messages for children and older adults; and guidance for specific types of emergencies, including radio nuclear incidents, chemical and biological incidents, and food crises