Mental health in emergencies feature profile: Dr Israel Ying Ding, Mental Health Officer, WHO Office in Myanmar

From personal experience to professional commitment

“No one asked me how I was doing, what I was feeling here,” recalls Dr Israel Ying Ding, reflecting on his childhood in a conflict-affected region of Myanmar. That memory—of being overlooked amid chaos—shaped his determination to work in mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in emergencies.

Now serving as a WHO Technical Officer in Myanmar, Dr Ding channels that early experience into his work today. He leads a train-the-trainers programme in partnership with local civil society organizations. The focus is on enhancing basic psychosocial skills—active listening, normalizing emotions, encouraging hope, and supporting independence.

It is a model of peer support that can be sustained with little reliance on external funding: a practical example of the community-based service implantation needed to address staggering levels of mental ill-health worldwide. 

ShapeTraining for sustainable support

Dr Ding trains volunteers who have years of experience in the medical system but lack MHPSS-specific skills. While acknowledging the importance of their medical background, he insists it must be complemented with tools that help people cope with the psychological toll of crisis.

“Human basic needs are the first layer, and we have to acknowledge them and see what we can do about that,” he explains. “That's why coordination and advocacy work is very important: as a mental health person, this is part of my job. But there is also a psychosocial part. I educate people—we can teach them skills, we can help them manage stress, so that they can navigate their struggles better. At the end of the day, we want them to be independent as much as possible.”

The need for such support is acute. In March 2025, an earthquake struck Mandalay, killing more than 4700 people and injuring over 5100. For a region already marked by conflict, displacement, and political instability, the disaster compounded existing challenges. With limited resources, humanitarian organizations have had to find innovative solutions to meet needs that stretch from food and water to psychosocial support.

Beyond survival: community belonging as a basic need

Programmes like the one Dr Ding leads offer an essential bridge, but he recognizes the difficult reality: many people still struggle for food, water, and shelter. Meeting these survival needs helps mental health, yet Dr Ding insists that belonging, hope, and social cohesion are just as critical.

“People think, ‘If I have food to eat or if I can send my children to school, then my problems will be gone,’” he explains. “Their priority is on those needs. But we also need to build community belonging, social cohesion.”

This principle reflects the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s Minimum Services Package (MSP)—a global standard that defines the most essential mental health and psychosocial support to be included in every humanitarian response. The MSP highlights that protecting mental wellbeing is not optional, but an essential intervention alongside food, water, and shelter.

For Myanmar, where conflict and political instability have slowed the development of a comprehensive mental health system, Dr Ding emphasizes both capacity building and coordination.

“There’s still a lot of capacity building needed. MHPSS is still weak in terms of prioritization and funding,” he says. “For advance level care, we need a system. NGOs or private organizations are doing counselling or psychological support. But we still have a long way to go to integrate the clinical parts. Each level still needs a lot of work.” 

Creating safe spaces for healing

Despite the systemic challenges, Dr Ding takes joy in the community spaces he helps create for people displaced or otherwise affected by instability.

“We don't use fancy words to describe it,” he says. “People come, they make soap together, they cook and eat together, children draw, they tell jokes. Having this space to talk about their emotions, they begin to know that mental health is not just about seeing a counsellor or doctor and going home. It's about their daily life.”

In this daily life—sharing food, laughter, and creativity—people begin to recover a sense of belonging. For Dr Ding, that is the heart of his work: transforming his own childhood memory of being unseen into a career that ensures others are heard, supported, and connected. 

*This story was originally published on the WHO website.