Refugee Mental Health Workshop Follow Up
The UI College of Public Health, UI Human Rights Center, Linn County Public Health and Johnson County Public Health, in partnership with the Iowa Department of Human Services, Bureau of Refugee Services, hosted a workshop in June 2019 titled:
Enhancing mental health and psychosocial support for refugee families in Iowa: What providers need to know and do
Sponsors
Resources
Follow-up Resource List
Workshop Resources
Statewide
Cedar Rapids
Iowa City
CLAS Standards
Other Resources
- mhGAP Intervention Guide
Description: “The WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) aims at scaling up services for mental, neurological and substance use disorders. The mhGAP Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG) for mental, neurological and substance use disorders for non-specialist health settings, is a technical tool developed by WHO to assist in implementation of mhGAP.”
Available in English, French, Marathi, Russian, Spanish. - ‘Problem Management Plus’ Manual
Description: “The manual describes a scalable psychological intervention called Problem Management Plus (PM+) ..that can help people with depression, anxiety and stress, whether or not exposure to adversity has caused these problems. It can be applied to improve aspects of mental health and psychosocial well-being…”
Available in Arabic, traditional Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Kenyan (mixed English/Swahili), Korean, Kurdish/Badini, Russian, Spanish, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, Urdu. - Task shifting: global recommendations and guidelines
Description: “Task shifting is the name now given to a process whereby specific tasks are moved, where
appropriate, to health workers with shorter training and fewer qualifications. By reorganizing the
workforce in this way, task shifting can make more efficient use of existing human resources and
ease bottlenecks in service delivery.”
Available in English. - Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers
Description: “This guide covers psychological first aid which involves humane, supportive and practical help to fellow human beings suffering serious crisis events. It is written for people in a position to help others who have experienced an extremely distressing event. It gives a framework for supporting people in ways that respect their dignity, culture and abilities.”
Available in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Hindi, Italian, Kiswahili, Korean, Myanmar, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu. - Psychological first aid: facilitator’s manual for orienting field workers
Description. This manual is designed to orient helpers to offer psychological first aid (PFA) to people following a serious crisis event. PFA involves humane, supportive and practical assistance for people who are distressed, in ways that respect their dignity, culture and abilities. This facilitator’s manual is to be used together with the Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers (World Health Organization, War Trauma Foundation, World Vision International, 2011).
Available in Chinese, English, Greek, Ukrainian. - Group Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) for Depression
Description: “WHO recommends interpersonal therapy (IPT) as a possible first line treatment for depression. With this new manual, the World Health Organization (WHO) gives guidance on the use of interpersonal therapy (IPT) using a 8 session group protocol. The manual – which is part of WHO’s mhGAP programme – describes IPT in a simplified format for use by supervised facilitators who may not have received previous training in mental health.”
Available in Arabic, Chinese, English, Russian. - Friendship Bench Training Manual for Health Promoters (click on tools, and request the manual)
Description: “The Friendship Bench project is an evidence-based intervention developed in Zimbabwe to bridge the mental health treatment gap. Our mission is to enhance mental well-being and improve quality of life through the use of problem solving therapy delivered by trained lay health workers. We focus on people who are suffering from common mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression.”
As an internationally recognized global mental health expert, he works with populations affected by war-related trauma, torture, environmental disasters, and chronic stressors of poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to healthcare.
