Dr. Marcia Brophy, Regional Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Specialist – Middle East & Eurasia, Save the Children International.

Dr. Marcia Brophy is a Child Psychologist, and Wellbeing and Mental Health Specialist working in this field for over 15 years.

Currently she is working as Regional Mental Health & Psychosocial Support Specialist (Middle East & Eurasia) for Save the Children International.  Her role as Regional MHPSS Specialist is to promote access among children, youth and families affected by the conflict in the Middle East to high quality and well-coordinated MHPSS programming – this includes building a cohesive, high quality response across multiple Save the Children country offices in order to provide a holistic and integrated approach to addressing the MHPSS needs of children affected by conflict and crisis in the region in general, with a specific focus on the effects of the Syrian conflict.

Prior to this she worked as a Mental Health Specialist for UNHCR based in Bangladesh; Regional Technical Advisor for ChildFund International, based in Sri Lanka, advising on their youth programmes across Asia; and as a Mental Health Training Advisor for Shanthiham, a not-for-profit charity in Jaffna, North of Sri Lanka, and for the Sri Lankan Government’s Department of Health.  During her time in the U.K. Marcia worked for a range of NGOs, think tanks and national and local government on designing and delivering innovative, practical wellbeing and mental health programmes.  Alongside programme design she has extensive experience in conducting research and evaluations to influence change in the workplace and at the policy level.

Marcia holds a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the Institute of Education and the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London, U.K. respectively.

Her talk is titled “Responding to Children’s Needs: The Practicalities of Delivering MHPSS in Protracted Conflicts.”