Pillar 2 and 3: Promoting the capacity and accountability of mental health services in Lebanon delivered through the National Lifeline for emotional support and suicide prevention and Embrace's Community Mental Health Center and building the capacity of local actors in responding to mental health and suicide Lebanon has been facing social, political, and economic hardship since October 2019, which has led to a severe deterioration of living circumstances and consequently mental health of people residing in Lebanon. These conditions, expected to increase, have been increasing the burden on the humanitarian sector, particularly non-profit organizations responding to these consecutive crises under limited resources in the absence of efficient governmental agencies. A recent report published in February 2022 by the United Nations Interagency Coordination in Lebanon, focusing on mental health (MH) and psychosocial wellbeing, raised alarms on the critical increase in stress, trauma, isolation and negative emotions among refugees and Lebanese and an increase in the demand for MH services. More importantly, the report shed light on what they called “the silent threat” which is the worsening of MH of frontline workers. Concurrently, the rate of suicide in Lebanon is estimated at 1 person on average dying of suicide every 2 days, and 1 person attempting suicide every 6 hours (Bizri et al., 2021) (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1876201821000915?via%3Dihub ). In a small country like Lebanon, these deaths take a huge toll on the community, and news of suicide has become prevalent in the media, with still poor awareness on ethical media reporting, leading to an increase in deaths because of the copycat suicide phenomena.
Embrace is a local non-profit organization dedicated to mental health and operates the National Emotional Support and Suicide Prevention Hotline (1564) in Lebanon in collaboration with the National Mental Health Program at the Ministry of Public Health since 2017. It also runs one of the largest Community Mental Health Centers (ECMHC) in Beirut which it launched after the Beirut blast in August 2020 delivering 5,500 free mental health consultations in its first year of operation and under strenuous country conditions. The aim of this project is to provide additional support to promote the local mental health response that Embrace is delivering through its multiple specialized programs and activities to approximately 15,000 direct beneficiaries annually, between its two cited services above. It also aims to strengthen accountability measures and build the capacity of other partners as identified with the health sector. To increase its inclusion and availability to vulnerable and affected populations, Embrace invests its resources in applying developmental assessments and workshops to improve its operations to be gender inclusive and non- discriminatory by international standards. 
The project will support the National Lifeline services by increasing its reach across geographical areas in Lebanon where awareness about this service is still unknown and preventive mental health services are scarce if non-existent, by improving its staffing to better serve beneficiaries with debilitating socio-economic needs putting their lives at risk, and by enhancing its monitoring and evaluation of Embrace services to strengthen the accountability and improve beneficiary feedback mechanisms across both the National Lifeline and Community Mental Health Center. 
It will also bridge the gap in needed mental health services in Beirut by supporting the services of the ECMHC and reducing the treatment gap among vulnerable populations, including women, youth and individuals from the LGBTQ+ community which frequent Embrace’s center as well as being the most prominent type of callers to the National Lifeline. Given its expertise in the field of mental health and specifically suicide, the project will build the capacity of front liners working in two other non- profit organizations, to be identified in coordination with the health sector, through specialized workshops to empower them with skills on responding to individuals with mental health conditions via standardized response to mental health crises and active listening.