Scalable psychological interventions for people affected by adversity

WHO's work to train nonspecialist mental health care workers to deliver evidence based psychological interventions

• From: Department for International Development
• Published: 5 July 2018

• Document Type: Journal Article
• Theme: Health, Humanitarian Disasters and Emergencies
• Authors: Schafer, A, Harper-Shehadeh, M, Carswell, K, van't Hof, E

Abstract

There is a need to improve mental health outcomes in humanitarian settings. This includes strengthening community, family and other psychosocial support mechanisms, as well as improving access to psychological interventions. This paper provides a rationale for developing scalable psychological interventions and describes the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s work to encourage training of nonspecialist mental health care workers to deliver evidence based psychological interventions.

This paper is part of a special edition of ‘Humanitarian Exchange’, co-edited with Anne Harmer, Manager of Elrha’s Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) Programme, focusing on mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian crises.

Citation

A. Schafer, M. Harper-Shehadeh, K. Carswell, E. van’t Hof, J. Hall, A. Malik, T. Au, M. van Ommeren (2018) ‘Scalable psychological interventions for people affected by adversity’ in Humanitarian Exchange No 72 July 2018, p19-21. London: Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN) Overseas Development Institute

Links

Scalable psychological interventions for people affected by adversity

Published 5 July 2018