Refugee Emergency: DEFining and Implementing Novel Evidence-based psychosocial interventions (RE-DEFINE)

Background

RE-DEFINE is particularly relevant for the refugee crisis in Europe and in bordering countries (i.e. Turkey), as the progressive increase in refugees seeking asylum poses a significant challenge to the health systems’ capacity to adequately respond to the health needs of this population. The project focuses on adaptation, testing, and implementation of Self Help Plus (SH+), a novel trans-diagnostic self-help preventive psychosocial intervention specifically developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to respond to humanitarian crises.

Aims

RE-DEFINE aims to implement effective psychological interventions for preventing the onset of mental disorders in refugees and asylum seekers with psychological distress resettled in middle-income and high-income countries.

Project plan

The intervention will be delivered by non-specialists to groups of up to 30 participants at a time. The cost-effectiveness of SH+ will be tested in two large, multicentre, pragmatic randomised studies. One study will be conducted in Italy, Germany, Finland, Austria, and the UK (high-income countries), and a second study will be conducted in Turkey (middle-income country). The dissemination plan will include structured activities such as an Individual Participant Data (IPD) meta-analysis of all randomised data available on SH+, in order to identify specific predictors of intervention’s effects that will facilitate its uptake and long-term implementation in European and non-European countries.

Publications and output

You may visit the project website for more information.

Funding organisations

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