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STRENGTHS: Scaling up psychological interventions with Syrian Refugees

When a country receives a high number of refugees, there are challenges to be met. One of the challenges is to provide mental health care to people who are very vulnerable.

This challenge is felt by the countries hosting refugees from Syria. There is a lack of Arabic-speaking mental health professionals to provide mental health care on the scale that it is needed.

The STRENGTHS project trained Syrian refugees to provide a mental health intervention called Problem Management+ (PM+) to fellow Syrian refugees. PM+ is developed by the WHO. It is a short programme that does not target a single disorder. Instead it targets symptoms of common mental disorders.

PM+ for individuals has already been successfully tested and implemented in Pakistan and Kenya and is being implemented in several other settings.

The STRENGTHS project translated, adapted, tested and implemented the PM+ programmes Individual, Group, Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE) and an internet-delivered version.

But the project went further than that.

It is not enough to know if an intervention works or not. It is also necessary to understand how it can be implemented in the specific context, and whether it is cost effective or not. STRENGTHS attempted to answer these questions in eight different countries in Europe and the MENA region.

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Scaling up psychological interventions with Syrian refugees

Providing mental health care to refugees is a great challenge in countries receiving high numbers of refugees.
This challenge is also felt by the countries hosting refugees from Syria. There is a lack of Arabic speaking mental health professionals to provide mental health care on the scale that is needed. The STRENGTHS project trains Syrian refugees to provide scalable psychological interventions to fellow Syrian refugees.

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STRENGTHS Project

The Middle East, North Africa and Europe host millions of Syrian refugees. The refugees have fled violence and destruction. They have lost loved ones, homes and property. For many, the journey to safety has been dangerous and full of hardship. Building a new life and future in a new country brings a whole new set of challenges and worries.

Not all refugees experience serious mental health problems as a result of this hardship. But the mental well-being of most refugees is under pressure. Research shows that refugees suffer higher levels of mental health problems than non-refugee populations.

A sudden increase in the number of refugees is a challenge to the health systems.

Even the most robust health system will struggle to provide sufficient care to a high influx of patients with mental health concerns. This is the case in all host countries to greater or smaller extent.

There are many barriers to provide sufficient care. Across the Middle East there is a lack of trained specialists who can provide high quality care. In Europe there are not enough Arabic speaking mental health care professionals. This limits the access to mental health services.

Part of the solution could be scalable psychological interventions for common mental disorders.

More about Problem Management+ and related interventions

More about the STRENGTHS Project

For general queries:

strengths.fgb@vu.nl

+31 20 59 88360

Faculty of Behavioural and Human Movement Sciences (FGB)
Department of Clinical, Neuro- & Developmental Psychology
Van der Boechorststraat 7
1081 BT Amsterdam

Contact

  • Marit Sijbrandij, PhD
  • Full Professor, Clinical Psychology
  • Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences
  • e.m.sijbrandij@vu.nl
Marit Sijbrandij, PhD