The Guidelines on promotive and preventive mental health interventions for adolescents - Helping Adolescents thrive (HAT), provide evidence-informed recommendations on psychosocial
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interventions to promote mental health, prevent mental disorders, and reduce self-harm and other risk behaviours among adolescents.
The HAT Guidelines aims to inform policy development, service planning and the strengthening of health and education systems, and facilitate mainstreaming of adolescent mental health promotion and prevention strategies across sectors and delivery platforms.
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War Child put forward a specific request for comparative study, addressing the following questions: •What are the key types of intervention for psychosocial assistance that are being applied to children in war-affected areas? •What are the resu
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lts of (scientific) research into the effects of the most relevant programmes? •Which NGOs operate in this sector and what is their practical experience with specific methods? •How does the War Child methodology relate to developments in the sector; what is known about the effects of War Child’s programme and how can these be measured? How will War Child work towards the development of additional evidence?
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A broad range of UNHCR’s key priorities overlap with MHPSS issues – for example, child protection and sexual and gender-based violence [SGBV] prevention and response.
Despite all these existent synergies, UNHCR’s current policies and guidelines do not sufficiently link with MHPSS principles.
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For example, the Community Services section, which is closely aligned to the principles of MHPSS and could be well-positioned to guide the implementation of related programs, has not adopted the MHPSS language or approach.
There are opportunities for UNHCR to engage more strongly and clearly in this field. However, this requires a vision for how the organisation as a whole, and particular sectors within the organisation, will engage within the field of MHPSS activities. For a start, UNHCR can work to improve its understanding and framing of mental health and psychosocial issues, and how these issues fit within its broader mandate.
While the majority of MHPSS activities are delivered by implementing partners, UNHCR staff require familiarity with core principles in the field, such as the Intervention Pyramid contained in the IASC Guidelines, in order to support and monitor quality MHPSS activities.
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This operational guidance on MHPSS provides a practical orientation and tools for UNHCR country operations. It covers specific points of good practice to consider when developing MHPSS programming and offers advice on priority issues and practical difficulties, while also providing some background i
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nformation and definitions. Since MHPSS is a cross cutting concept this operational guidance is relevant for programming in various sectors, including health, community based protection, education, shelter, nutrition, food security and livelihoods.
The focus of this operational guidance is on refugees and asylum seekers, but it may apply to other persons of concern within UNHCR operations such as stateless persons, internally displaced persons and returnees. The guidance is meant for operations in both camp and non-camp settings, and in both rural and urban settings in low and middle-income countries with a UNHCR presence.
The guidance should be adapted according to different contexts. A standardized format for programme implementation cannot be offered because this depends to a large extent on existing national capacities and local opportunities.
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Results from studies evaluating the effectiveness of focused psychosocial support interventions in children exposed to traumatic events in humanitarian settings in low-income and middle-income count
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ries have been inconsistent, showing varying results by setting and subgroup (eg, age or gender). We aimed to assess the effectiveness of these interventions, and to explore which children are likely to benefit most.
Lancet Glob Health 2018; 6: e390–400
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‘Psychosocial Support of Children in Emergencies’ is a reference document for humanitarian workers who want to increase their understanding of the experiences of children in emergency situations and how to support them in mitigating the negative
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effects of these experiences and how to prevent further harm. While the book is not designed to be a day-to-day programming tool, it outlines UNICEF’s orientation to the psychosocial principles integral to any work with children and provides a number of examples from field work of how these principles can be turned into concrete actions.
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This guide focuses on the evaluation of psychosocial programs that are aligned with two main goals: - To promote psychosocial wellbeing by promoting an environment that provides appropriate care, op
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portunities for development and protects children from exposure to situations that are harmful to their psychosocial wellbeing, and - To respond to psychosocial problems by strengthening social and psychological supports for children who have been exposed to situations that affect their psychological development.
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Evidence-based psychological interventions are an important part of health, social, protection and education services and can help increase access to effective mental health treatments and progression towards universal health coverage.
This manua
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l provides managers and others responsible for planning and delivering services with practical guidance on how to implement manualized psychological interventions for adults, adolescents and children. It covers the five key implementation steps: make an implementation plan; adapt for context; prepare the workforce; identify, assess and support potential beneficiaries; and monitor and evaluate the service.
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The purpose of this paper is to clarify relevant terminologies and approaches relating to psychosocial well-being and social and emotional learning (SEL) in education in crisis affected contexts, and to explore how
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psychosocial support (PSS) and social and emotional learning relate to one another.
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In the following you can find 51 Planning tools for Mental Health and Psychosocial support in disasters, that have been derived from an anylsis of 282 Psychosocial Mental Health guidelines and 678 T
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ools. The single planning tools are structured according to the most relevant topics and can be used individually.
The purpose of the Action Sheets
Each Action Sheet is a planning tool in itself that can be used individually
Each Action Sheet is an entrypoint into the main recommendations for this specific topic and gives information on further readings, tools and practice examples.
Each Action Sheet gives advice on how to plan and enhance quality in the selected area and topic.
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Adolescence, defined as the period between 10 and 19 years of age, is a developmental stage during which many psychosocial and mental health challenges emerge. There is a well-established link between mental health and HIV outcomes. Adolescents and
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young adults living with HIV typically have additional mental health needs linked to their experiences of living with and managing a chronic illness, along with prevailing stigma and discrimination. Mental health promotion and prevention is thus a critical priority for this group.
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These ICRC guidelines outline the organization’s approach to mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) during and after armed conflict and other situations of violence. They provide a framework for harmonizing MHPSS programmes within the orga
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nization, and an insight into its strategic processes and field practices.
This publication is not intended to serve as a training manual for specific MHPSS techniques. In sharing these guidelines with an external audience, the ICRC aims to raise awareness of its approach among professionals and other interested parties.
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A community-based approach.
These guidelines focus on manmade rather than natural disasters, but our experiences in India, El Salvador and Pakistan (earthquake interventions), and following the 2004 tsunami, cyclone Nargis in 2008 and the Haiti ear
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thquake in 2010, showed that the principles described also work well in contexts of natural disasters.
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An applied approach to the training of trainers who, in turn,
train teams to implement psychosocial and mental health
interventions in developing countries affected by emergencies.
The film
On
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the
Road
to
Peace
of
Mind,
used in conjunction with this guidebook, presents an applied Training of Trai-
ners
(TOT) approach. They are designed to educate trainers to prepare teams to provide psychosocial and mental
health assistance for populations in developing countries affected by wars, conflict, natural disasters and other emer-
gencies. The film and guidebook offer a practical framework for the training of trainers that enables psychosocial
and mental health workers to train others. Through modifications for local culture and context, the framework
presented can be used in training programmes on the road to peace of mind around the globe.
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Despite growing evidence on the impact of psychosocial support interventions, there is an urgent need for a stronger evidence base on approaches that effectively support children affected by armed c
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onflict. To contribute to this evidence base, and building on a pilot study conducted in Uganda in 2009, War Child conducted an exploratory outcome evaluation of its psychosocial support intervention ‘I DEAL’ in South Sudan and Colombia in 2012. The objective of the evaluation was to explore the outcomes that I DEAL achieves for children and the factors that influence the achievement of those outcomes to further inform and strengthen the intervention
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This MHPSS in Emergencies training aims to prepare MHPSS responders, disaster managers, and emergency team leaders for work in the field by building understanding of basic concepts of MHPSS in emergencies as well as planning and implementing PSS activities. It is for MHPSS focal points from the Red
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Cross and Red Crescent Societies Movement and humanitarian organizations responsible for initiating or supporting the overall mental health and psychosocial activities and interventions during emergencies. The training modules in this guide have been developed to be flexible and adapted to different contexts and training needs. The guide and accompanying materials include the information and materials you will need to design and facilitate MHPSS in Emergencies training.
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