Towards Building Resilience within and beyond the Health Systems

Abstract

The phrase Health Systems Resilience has become a buzz word, especially within the past year following the COVID-19 pandemic. The term resilience is used in different forms and meanings. It in general refers to reinstating back quickly to the before-the -crisis state, by tirelessly combating the crisis at present. The concept has its origins in the fields of engineering, environmental sciences, and ecology, developed to suggest that systems respond to shocks in a variety of ways: by absorbing them and returning to their original equilibrium or reaching a new equilibrium which makes them more resilient (1). In clinical psychology and mental health, resilience is manifested as the ability of the individual to adapt to adverse conditions such as trauma, or stress (2).