(NewsDeeply) – After six years of conflict and extended exposure to trauma, Syria is in the throes of a mental health crisis, according to Chicago-based physician Dr. Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian-American trauma specialist and former president of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS). Thousands of civilians live in besieged areas, like the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus, without access to sufficient food, medicine or other basic supplies. In other areas, bombs and airstrikes not only compromise infrastructure by reducing homes to rubble, they also kill loved ones. In some Syrian towns, civilians endure both these hardships and many others.

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