Tuesday's report from Save the Children comes as the sixth anniversary of the Syrian war approaches and it calls on all sides to prioritize mental health issues before children develop lasting complications they will carry into adulthood. "We are failing children inside Syria, some of whom are being left to cope with harrowing experiences, from witnessing their parents killed in front of them to the horrors of life under siege, without proper support," said Marcia Brophy, a mental health adviser for Save The Children in the Middle East. Some residents know of just one psychiatrist in regions encompassing more than a million people, the Save the Children report said. It can disrupt the development of the brain and other organs, and trigger mental health disorders and addiction in adulthood, said Alexandra Chen, a child protection and mental health specialist based at Harvard University. More than half of the adults interviewed by Save the Children said they knew of children or adolescents who were recruited into armed groups.

Source: CBC News March 07, 2017 14:04 UTC