Depression, Anxiety and Stress Management

It can be hypothesized that the emotional difficulties Middle Eastern young people experience can be similar to young people in the rest of the world. Charara et al 2017 found that depression, followed by anxiety, represented a significant problem in this region but this study didn’t focus on young people. However, a 2009 study of young people in Saudi Arabia found the most common mental-health problem was anxiety and a further study concluded that 16 percent of Lebanese adolescents had suicidal thoughts. Further research in this area would be of benefit to the literature base as it has been difficult to find accurate and reliable data to describe the overall prevalence.

Sidra Medicine is a specialty children’s, young people and women’s healthcare organization and member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF). It will initially address the growing need for more comprehensive patient-focused medical services for women and children in Qatar and throughout the region. The clinical teams at Sidra Medicine have been recruited from around the world to deliver the very best care to women, young people and children in Qatar. 

With the opening of Sidra medicine and their children and adolescents mental health services (CAMHS) we propose to compare referral rates of depression and anxiety across their three different services, outpatient CAMHS, inpatient CAMHS and psychiatric liaison. We hope to categorize the referrals to help determine the mental health needs of young people in Qatar and the neighbouring regions due to the number of expats from these regions residing in Qatar.