The second meeting of the PSNP project advisory team was held on 18 July 2026 at the Caeser Hotel in Ramallah and via Zoom online from Gaza. The participants included researchers, academics from Al Quds University, practitioners, and representatives from the MoH, UNRWA, PUSWP, Enabel-Belgium, KULeuven University (the partner institution), and several NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza. Furthermore, the Sentinel Healthcare team from the selected project locations that provided support attended this meeting.
The meeting allowed for evaluating the project's advancement contemplate the results of the qualitative assessment of the mental health support and needs of healthcare workers during the War on Gaza. The pilot study's content was the subject of discussion among the participants. The pilot study's objective is to address the mental health status of healthcare workers by utilizing validated scales that align with the needs identified in the initial qualitative assessment. Additionally, the pilot will assist in the evaluation of the Sentinel-platform-developed training material for health teams that the project has developed. The team reached a consensus that the training material that will be developed should be practical and context-sensitive, and they deliberated on the instruments that would be employed.
In summary, the advisory team resolved to conduct a thorough examination of the tool following its electronic development and to validate that it is consistent with the context established during this meeting. Also, ensuring that each scale measures a psychological or social construct directly linked to the study's objectives (e.g., psychache, resilience, mental health literacy), which is very important for the cross-validation of the platform.
