The world is in the midst of a refugee crisis. The latest figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency show that there are 70.8 million people globally who have been forcibly displaced from their homes, including nearly 26 million refugees, the highest number on record. It estimates that 2018 alone saw an additional 2.8 million new refugees [...]
MHPSS for young adolescents in vulnerable communities in Lebanon The STRENGTHS project is researching different psychosocial support programs for Syrian refugees. STRENGTHS partner War Child is testing the Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE) program which is focused on children and adolescents. Originally meant as a child version of PM+, EASE was developed following a [...]
Problem Management Plus (PM+): WHOs scalable psychological programmes for psychological distress in humanitarian settings (Half Day) Barbara Kieft and Naser Morina facilitate a workshop at ESTSS 2019 To bridge the gap between the need for mental health care and the limited number of mental health care specialists in low and middle income countries, the World [...]
Open access article describing the development of the mobile mental health intervention of STRENGTHS called Step-by-Step: Burchert, Sebastian, Mohammed Salem Alkneme, Martha Bird, Kenneth Carswell, Pim Cuijpers, Pernille Hansen, Eva Heim et al. "User-centered app adaptation of a low-intensity e-mental health intervention for Syrian refugees." Frontiers in Psychiatry 9 (2018): 663. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00663/abstract
Several STRENGTHS collaborators were involved in new publications that are relevant for the project: Mobile Angebote für Geflüchtete. PiD-Psychotherapie Article available in German only, describing E-Mental Health as an approach to support persons in areas with little access to mental health care. It also explains two projects regarding the WHO intervention “Step-by-Step”: a WHO and [...]
Trauma - Flucht - Asyl: Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch für Beratung, Betreuung und Behandlung (Trauma - Flight- Asylum: An interdisciplinary handbook for counselling, care and treatment) A German language book on mental health of refugees with trauma complaints will be available in bookshops and online as of this week. Three of the four editors are STRENGTHS [...]
“Most often, what brings people down are the problems they cannot deal with. They are overwhelmed, they feel weak because they cannot find a solution. PM+ helps you to break down your problems into smaller parts and deal with each part one by one, and it really helps,” says Madhat Kataf, 49 years old, formerly [...]
David McDaid of London School of Economics and Political Science explains how the STRENGTHS project investigates the cost and requirements of implementing scalable interventions.
Sebastian Burchert of Freie Universität Berlin introduces the Step by Step app. Step-by-Step, is a guided intervention for depression delivered through an app. It provides psychoeducation and training in behavioural activation through an illustrated narrative with additional therapeutic techniques such as stress management (slow breathing), identifying strengths, positive self-talk, increasing social support and relapse prevention. [...]
On 20 December 2018 Swiss news paper Corriere del Ticino published an article about the work of University Hospital Zürich in testing Programme Management+ with Syrian refugees. The article, which is in Italian, can be viewed here: Migrazione «C’è tanta gente che sta male»