Abstract
People affected by conflict and humanitarian crises experience mental health concerns during and after displacement. These mental health concerns put displaced populations at a higher risk of poor health and life outcomes. In addition, these concerns negatively impact the ability of these populations to rebuild and recover. Current mental health and psychosocial supports (MHPSS), such as one-on-one counselling, are resource-intensive, require skilled professionals, and cannot be implemented at a large scale to meet the mental health needs of refugees.
Given the mental health concerns and needs faced by those living in humanitarian settings, HealthRight 鈥� a non-profit organization 鈥� aims to reduce the overall burden of mental health problems through the delivery of Self-Help Plus (SH+) as a routine component of humanitarian programming. SH+ is a group-based psychosocial intervention that addresses several psychological symptoms and can be delivered in group settings. HealthRight has designed SH+360, a model to deliver SH+ through humanitarian partnerships. The aim of SH+360 is to provide a framework to scale up MHPSS interventions.
The Journey to Scale (J2S) project aimed to test and refine the SH+360 model through partnerships in Uganda. Through the J2S project, we would understand barriers and facilitators to SH+ integration in multi-sectorial settings and learn best practice to scale up MHPSS interventions. Throughout the practicum, the monitoring and evaluating (M&E) system was developed to capture data relevant to outcome, output, and process indicators.
By the end of the practicum, there were preliminary findings regarding the integration and implementation phases of the J2S project. Through the SH+360, it was possible to integrate and adapt SH+ to the programming of two different organizations. From initial interviews and data collection, we have identified barriers during the integration and implementation phases. These were mainly regarding logistics and M&E activities. Also, data for process and output indicators such as training of facilitators and session attendance had been collected. Further information and data analysis is required to fully understand the barriers and facilitators to integrate SH+ in different programmatic areas and assess SH+360 as a model to scale up MHPSS interventions such as SH+ in humanitarian settings.