“One million victims of the conflict have received psychosocial care”: MinSalud

As part of the celebration of Victims Day on April 9, the Ministry of Health noted that of the 9,250,453 victims who have left the armed conflict in Colombia, 1,042,633 of them have received psychosocial care in the last 10 years.

This right is guaranteed in the country through the Psychosocial and Comprehensive Health Care Program for Victims (PAPSIVI), for which the health portfolio is responsible. Among the figures provided by this Ministry, it should be noted that between 2012 and 2021 it treated 768,102 victims, while the Unit for Victims treated another 274,531 people affected by violence.

The PAPSIVI is a set of interdisciplinary activities, procedures and interventions that allow the different actors to address the psychosocial impacts and damage to the physical and mental health of victims “caused by or in connection with the armed conflict”.

This program, which seeks to reach the municipalities most affected by the war, consists of two main components: psychosocial care and comprehensive health care. The first focuses on psychosocial damage and effects. While the second is based on physical and mental health. Both components are aimed at overcoming the health and psychosocial effects related to the victimizing event.

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For its part, the National Government assured that in the last four years, MinSalud has treated 461,879 victims, through this program. According to the data provided by the government, this would be equivalent to 60% of the people served, since its implementation began through Resolution 1166 of 2018.

At the same time, the program has four cross-cutting strategies: nation-territory coordination, monitoring and monitoring, participation of victims of the armed conflict and the development of human talent.

The head of the Social Promotion Office of the Ministry of Health, Alejandro Cepeda, noted that, “as of December 2021, as a result of the crossing between the Single Registry of Victims and the Single Member Base, it was found that 94.5% of victims of the armed conflict were affiliated with the General Social Security System in Health. Of these, 70 per cent are on a subsidized basis, 27 per cent are on a contributory basis and the remaining 3 per cent are in the emergency regime”.

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It should also be noted that this health care is stipulated in point 5 of the Peace Agreement. “Psychosocial rehabilitation strategies for coexistence will be coordinated and complemented by the efforts of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition during its period of operation”, reads the document signed between the Colombian State and the former FARC guerrillas in 2016.

At this point, the Health Portfolio reported that it advanced on Line 3 with the validation of the Community Psychosocial Rehabilitation Strategy “in the municipalities of San Jacinto and San Juan Nepomuceno (Bolívar) during 2021. The strategy is currently being implemented in the municipalities of Pradera (Valle del Cauca), San Onofre and Tolú Viejo (Sucre) and Valdivia and Cáceres (Antioquia),” the Ministry explained in a public statement.

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