Guidance Documents and Tools for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support
Overview
A number of guidance documents and other resources are available to support the implementation of mental health and psychosocial assistance in the field, these include:
IOM Manual on Community-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies and Displacement
This manual developed by IOM aims to facilitate MHPSS experts and managers in designing, implementing, and evaluating Community-Based MHPSS programs, projects and activities for emergency-affected and displaced populations in humanitarian settings. It is specifically designed to support IOM MHPSS managers and experts. This tool is available online and as PDF, it includes links to several further readings and resources.
IASC Community-Based Approaches to MHPSS Programmes: A Guidance Note
This guidance note was developed by the IASC Working Group on Community-Based MHPSS co-chaired by IOM. It provides an overview on community-based (CB) approaches to MHPSS in all phases of the response, including assessment, planning, start-up, implementation and evaluation, while being mindful of ethical standards.
This Guidance Note is available on the IOM intranet and is an internal tool intended to help Regional Thematic Specialists as well as Chiefs of Mission, Heads of Office and project developers to apply the appropriate standards of the Organization in performance of their functions regarding mental health and psychosocial support to migrant, displaced, and crisis affected populations, including returnees.
Psychological First Aid: Guide for Field Workers
Psychological first aid has been recommended by many international and national expert groups, including the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and the Sphere Project. Psychological first aid is an alternative to psychological debriefing. In 2009, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) Guidelines Development Group evaluated the evidence for psychological first aid and psychological debriefing. They concluded that psychological first aid, rather than psychological debriefing, should be offered to people in severe distress. This guide reflects the emerging science and international consensus on how to support people in the immediate aftermath of extremely stressful events.
IOM Tools for Psychosocial Needs Assessment in Emergency Displacement, Early Recovery and Returns
The tools presented in this volume have been developed and used over the past few years in order to identify and respond to people's psychosocial needs in the midst of an emergency and in early recovery settings, mainly targeting displaced and returnee populations. As tools for IOM operations, they are designed to achieve four main goals: 1) assessing people's psychosocial well-being in a family setting in a participatory way; 2) mapping the provision of pre-existing and emergency tailored services and capacities to respond to the needs of the affected population; 3) identify most urgent areas of intervention; and 4) accordingly planning interventions aimed at addressing the needs that are not covered by existing services, in the thematic areas where the intervention is most needed. The assessment is a methodological framework that entails the IOM emergency teams to understand the psychosocial complexities people are facing, and use this understanding to have a psychosocial approach in the design of general IOM support interventions, and, if needed tailor specific psychosocial programmes.
IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings
Populations affected by emergencies frequently experience enormous suffering. Humanitarian actors are increasingly active in protecting and improving people's mental health and psychosocial well-being during and after emergencies. A significant gap, however, has been the absence of a multi-sectoral, inter-agency framework that enables effective coordination, identifies useful practices, flags potentially harmful practices and clarifies how different approaches to mental health and psychosocial support complement one another. The Guidelines offer essential advice on how to facilitate an integrated approach to address the most urgent mental health and psychosocial issues in emergency situations.
The booklet "Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings: What Should Camp Management and Camp Coordination Actors Know", based on the 2007 Guidelines, presents a brief overview of the basic knowledge CCCM actors, particularly camp managers, should have in the domain of mental health and psychosocial support. It lists a series of actions and best practices that should/could be implemented in a camp setting to protect and support the psychosocial well-being of people. These include dedicated programmes as well as the consideration of psychosocial implications in the provision of basic humanitarian assistance and camp setup.
Mainstreaming mental health and psychosocial support in camp coordination and camp management
This article examines the efforts of IOM to mainstream mental health and psychosocial considerations into camp coordination and camp management (CCCM), through capacity building and provision of direct psychosocial support. It focuses on the activities carried by the Organization in South Sudan, in the Protection of Civilians Areas, and in the north east of Nigeria, with the aim to identify relevant challenges and best practices.
This brief document compiles existing material related to mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) for the COVID-19 crisis, as well as other resources that can be applicable to the context. Documents are divided into different sections, based on the ‘'spaces of new vulnerability" inherent to some IOM programmes although many of them are applicable to other areas. They cover both mainstreaming of MHPSS and specific actions.
Mental health and psychosocial support for resettled refugees
These guidelines aim to support resettlement actors and practitioners in understanding and addressing the mental health and psychosocial needs of refugees throughout the resettlement cycle, from pre-departure to post-arrival.
The first section of the guidelines covers the phase of first asylum to help understand the experience and responses of refugees immediately prior to resettlement and explores the possible psychosocial reactions of refugees to events and adversity. The second section describes each phase of the resettlement process and related psychosocial impacts, providing key recommendations and resources for all resettlement actors and host communities on improving mental health and psychosocial support for resettled refugees throughout the resettlement process. The five annexes provide more detail on basic psychosocial skills that can be used by all resettlement staff.
This Handbook aims to provide practical guidance on the design, implementation and monitoring of reintegration assistance for returnees. While reintegration is a process taking place in different return contexts (e.g., following spontaneous, forced or assisted voluntary returns, or internal displacement), the Handbook focuses on assistance provided to migrants unable or unwilling to remain in the host country. MHPSS-aspects are reflected throughout the different sections of the Handbook.
The content of this publication was developed by the IASC Reference Group for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings. It has been developed to assist humanitarian aid, development and disaster risk management organizations, national and local governments and community actors within and across sectors with the delivery of a priority set of actions to reduce suffering and improve mental health and psychosocial well-being through integration with risk management perspectives and approaches that link prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. Additionally, it was designed to assist governmental actors, domestic sources of financing and donors in understanding and supporting activities focused on MHPSS as part of DRR and sectoral programmes.
This briefing note summarizes key mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) considerations in relation to the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The brief was last updated February 2020.
Portraits. Art therapy workshop. Maiduguri, Nigeria © IOM 2018/Rola SOULHEIL
Contacts
For additional support and guidance on mental health and psychosocial assistance in emergencies, contact Guglielmo Schinina: gschinina@iom.int or the Mental Health, Psychosocial Response and Intercultural Communication Section-Global: contactpss@iom.int.