RAN Mental Health Working Group (RAN HEALTH)

In recent years, practitioners working in the field of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) have pointed to a potential link between mental health disorders on one side, and radicalisation on the other. Practitioners need to examine mental health disorders in a nuanced and specific way and identify functional links between specific aspects of the mental health disorder and specific ways that this contributed to their patients’ pathways to extremism.

We can observe a greater prevalence of mental health disorders amongst terrorists due to on-line entry, mass recruitment tactics and higher exposure to threats, grievances and propaganda. There is a sense of urgency to do more to prevent vulnerable individuals with mental health disorders from joining terrorist groups or committing terrorist acts in the name of a terrorist organisation.

Meet Johan, our case study.

Radicalisation makes victims of the most vulnerable, and there are few more vulnerable than young children. Those with limited parental guidance, suffering from discrimination or exclusion, with mental health issues – sometimes linked to trauma – or victims of abuse are the most vulnerable of all.

Children taken to Syria or Iraq by their parents and now returning to Europe, and non-European children forcibly displaced by Daesh and arriving in Europe, are likely to have many of these problems. They may have also witnessed atrocities, lost family, perhaps seen their parents imprisoned, and gone through the trauma of resettlement. Building up their resilience gives these children a chance.

RAN brought together policy-makers and practitioners in Warsaw on 4 July 2018 to find solutions to these challenges.

When tackling radicalisation and extremism, first-line practitioners sometimes need to have very difficult conversations.

What should you say when meeting a new patient suspected of having extreme views? What should you not say? Which conversation techniques may help? What do practitioners from the RAN network recommend?

Alfredo Calcedo is a psychiatrist at the Spanish Hospital Gregorio Marañón.

Alfredo took part in the Policy & Practice meeting “A mental health approach to understanding and preventing violent extremism”.

Noemi Bertinotti is a volunteer at Psicologi per i Popoli Federazione in Italy.

Noemi took part in the meeting “Taking mental health issues into account in CVE and PVE”.

Kinga Bialek is a cross-cultural Psychologist at Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research Poland (SIETAR), Poland.

Learn how she tackles radicalisation in her work.

Working Group leaders:

• Catherine Grandsard, France
• Eva María Jiménez González, Spain

For the Working Groups contact points, please see the contacts page