Most narratives about Lebanon’s crisis end with the ceasefire. For many families, that is where the harder story begins.
This brief examines the psychological toll of Lebanon’s prolonged instability, a landscape where more than 646,000 displaced people have returned home since the 20 June ceasefire, yet an estimated 430,600 remain displaced, and “return” itself has become a fragile, often partial process. Drawing on field monitoring and testimonies gathered by Basmeh & Zeitooneh’s protection teams, the report shows how repeated displacement, unsafe or incomplete return, and unequal recovery are reshaping how Lebanese families relate to safety, home, and the future.
The brief highlights how children, women, men, older persons, and persons with disabilities are each carrying distinct psychosocial burdens, and warns that as families move out of collective shelters into rented housing, host communities, and damaged neighborhoods, their distress becomes less visible, even as it persists. It calls for a shift from short-term emergency stabilization toward sustained, community-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) that follows people wherever they are, backed by predictable funding and a greater decision-making role for national actors.
For more details: research.leb@basmeh-zeitooneh.org