This is the second episode in a podcast series framed by contributions featured in the International Review of the Red Cross published by ICRC focusing on Mental health and armed conflict. This episode takes off from a contribution entitled Voices from the front line: Mental health and psychosocial experiences of Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers and staff working in armed conflict contexts authored by Arz Stephan MHPSS Advisor, Ganna Goloktionova MHPSS Advisor, Cátia Sofia Peres de Matos MHPSS Advisor and Shona Whitton MHPSS Technical Team Lead – all staff members of the MHPSS Hub.
Together, they conducted a qualitative study of the mental health and psychosocial experiences of Red Cross Red Crescent national volunteers and staff in a dire reality for humanitarians in the frontlines. With 130 active armed conflicts in fifty countries, more than 4 million RCRC volunteers and staff live and work in armed conflict settings; most volunteers and staff work in their own countries, delivering essential humanitarian assistance to their communities. Twenty-seven RCRC volunteers and staff lost their lives in the line of duty in 2025, with additional fatalities occurring off-duty.
Our colleagues work in extreme conditions and constant exposure to suffering often cause long-term psychological consequences, and the mental health and psychosocial impacts occur in a wider context that can lead staff and volunteers to question their fundamental moral values.
We invited one of the authors, Shona Whitton, to help us explore the mental health and psychosocial experiences of national volunteers and staff based on the findings of the study and the actual words of some of our colleagues in the frontlines.
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