The mental health of doctors in Gaza: "Survival is not a choice"

"Doctors and medical staff in general are trained to see blood, to see things that would be hard to see for most people,” says Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) psychologist Audrey McMahon. "But what they've been seeing [in Gaza] is extremely distressing and disturbing for any human being.”

After more than six months of relentless war, Gaza’s healthcare workers have faced unprecedented challenges in providing medical care every day while trying to survive and manage the toll the conflict has taken on them personally. The impact of working in such conditions could leave scars that last for years to come.

"We've been hearing [how] medical staff in Gaza are heroes,” McMahon says, "and I think they surely are for what they are doing. And yet it's not a choice. They are all in survival. What else can they do? They have absolutely no time to process what is happening to them. Survival is not a choice.”

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Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières helps people worldwide where the need is greatest, delivering emergency medical aid to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care. Learn more at https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

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