Situation:
After a break due to the worsening safety conditions, Doctors of the World UK (DoW UK) resumed activities since May 2006, - from Amman and Erbil, supporting local teams and Iraqi NGOs - implementing training programmes focusing on pre-hospital emergency care at community level. The continued deterioration of the Emergency Health Care services has led DoW UK to upscale its activities with special emphasis on pre-hospital emergency care, maternal & childcare and mental health.

Activities:
The general objective of the program is to restore and improve access to emergency health services through a comprehensive and integrated community based approach in 7 governorates in Iraq with the following components.

• ­Pre-hospital Emergency medical Care: Most of the time, wounded people arrive at emergency rooms without receiving any basic life support, which dramatically reduces their survival chances. The level of First Aid knowledge is very low within the Iraqi community, but also within the health workers groups who, for most of them never get such training in the past. The first component of DoW UK programme consisted in training of trainers in Basic Life Support; they were then in charge of training the communities in 6 governorates in Iraq. Then, DoW UK will implement a second phase to improve over a period of 24 months the emergency medical services: pre-hospital and hospital care in 6 governorates.
  DoW UK will provide technical assistance for the development of new procedures for health staff, necessary training and retraining of doctors, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians in pre hospital care.

• Reproductive Health: The needs are urgent to improve emergency obstetric care, given the bleak maternal mortality indicators.  But as the violence has been extremely high in conflict areas, such as Dyiala governorate, it was until now impossible to reinforce emergency obstetrical care at hospital level. Indeed specialized doctors had to flee for security reasons. More other pregnant women could not reach maternal hospital at night and do not have any other choice than to deliver at home. To improve the capacities of birth attendant working at home, DoW UK is carrying on a programme of training cycles of community birth attendants in Kirkuk and Baquba governorates that will be possible extended to Baghdad peripheral areas and Salahdeen. 150 community birth attendants will be able to carry out deliveries at home and prenatal and postnatal care of the women and infants.

• Child Health: DoW UK is carrying on a programme to improve the emergency medical care for women and children in Mossul by organizing health professionals training sessions and equipment and medicine donations.

• Mental Health: In the current violence situation, about 20% of patients attending PHC Centers in Iraq have emotional problems. However, most of these disorders are cared as physical problems. In response to the stress, drug addiction is growing very quickly among young people. Diazepam is the most used medicine through Iraq. To respond to this situation, DoW UK participates in a pilot project to integrate mental health care with primary health care through Iraq.

Project Start Date: 2006

Project End Date: On-going