Improving mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in humanitarian settings: reflections on research funded through R2HC
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RESEARCH IN PRACTICE
Open Access
Improving mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in humanitarian settings: reflections on research funded through R2HC Wietse A. Tol1,2,3* , Alastair Ager4,5, Cecile Bizouerne6, Richard Bryant7, Rabih El Chammay8,9, Robert Colebunders10, Claudia García-Moreno11, Syed Usman Hamdani12, Leah E. James13, Stefan C.J. Jansen14, Marx R. Leku15, Samuel Likindikoki16, Catherine Panter-Brick17,18, Michael Pluess19, Courtland Robinson20, Leontien Ruttenberg21, Kevin Savage22, Courtney Welton-Mitchell23, Brian J. Hall24, Melissa Harper Shehadeh25, Anne Harmer26† and Mark van Ommeren25†
Abstract Major knowledge gaps remain concerning the most effective ways to address mental health and psychosocial needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises. The Research for Health in Humanitarian Crisis (R2HC) program aims to strengthen humanitarian health practice and policy through research. As a significant portion of R2HC’s research has focused on mental health and psychosocial support interventions, the program has been interested in strengthening a community of practice in this field. Following a meeting between grantees, we set out to provide an overview of the R2HC portfolio, and draw lessons learned. In this paper, we discuss the mental health and psychosocial support-focused research projects funded by R2HC; review the implications of initial findings from this research portfolio; and highlight four remaining knowledge gaps in this field. Between 2014 and 2019, R2HC funded 18 academic-practitioner partnerships focused on mental health and psychosocial support, comprising 38% of the overall portfolio (18 of 48 projects) at a value of approximately 7.2 million GBP. All projects have focused on evaluating the impact of interventions. In line with consensus-based recommendations to consider a wide range of mental health and psychosocial needs in humanitarian settings, research projects have evaluated diverse interventions. Findings so far have both challenged and confirmed widely-held assumptions about the effectiveness of mental health and psychosocial interventions in humanitarian settings. They point to the importance of building effective, sustained, and diverse partnerships between scholars, humanitarian practitioners, and funders, to ensure long-term program improvements and appropriate evidence-informed decision making. (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected] Anne Harmer and Mark van Ommeren, M are joint last authors. 1 Section of Global Health, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, bg 9, DK-1014 Copenhagen, Denmark 2 Peter C. Alderman Program for Global Mental Health, HealthRight International, New York, NY, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give app
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