Clinic in Syria’s rebel north tackles war’s mental toll

At a mental health clinic in northern Syria, male patients with shaved heads squat barefoot in a courtyard, some dressed in uniforms and others in T-shirts and tracksuit trousers. The second floor houses female patients in patterned dresses and flowery headscarves. Some smile at visitors while others lie motionless on their beds. The horrors of Syria’s six-year war have left the country’s population with devastating psychological scars, but staff at the only mental health facility in Syria’s opposition-held north are doing their best to treat those affected.

Among the patients at the clinic in Azaz, northern Aleppo province, is a 17-year-old girl scarred by the conflict.

“She saw a small child that had been killed and was being eaten by animals,” Dorar al-Sobh, one of two doctors at the facility, said.

“She was so shocked she lost her ability to speak. Now she can’t sleep or eat... She avoids everyone.”

A male patient from the neighbouring province of Raqa came back to his bombed-out home to find the lifeless bodies of his wife and six children.

“He has difficulty sleeping... he gets flashbacks and nightmares,” says Sobh, 46.

Nurse Mohammed Munzer recalls receiving patients who had been arrested at the peaceful protests in 2011 that kicked off Syria’s uprising.

“They were tortured and beaten, especially on the head. They started to have mental problems,” the 35-year-old says. The facility serves nearly 140 inpatients as well as others who come from outside for care.

“The hospital was hit in Masaken Hanano, wounding one of the nurses in his hand and handicapping him,” facility administrator Mohyiddin Othman says. Many of the hospital’s medical staff fled and left patients behind. Local residents, alarmed by the situation, contacted a Turkish medical NGO that worked with local Syrian doctors to transfer the patients.

By 2013, they had been moved first to a facility in western Aleppo province, and then to Azaz with help from charity group Physicians Across Continents.

While Azaz has been periodically targeted by regime strikes, particularly in the early years after the patients were moved to the area, the new hospital has not been hit.

That has allowed medical staff to focus on their work, offering residents and outpatients medication, assessments and one-on-one treatment. The challenges can feel overwhelming, the facility’s staff say. “We are psychologically exhausted,” says Sobh.