The crisis in Syria has resulted in vast numbers of refugees seeking asylum in Syria's neighbouring countries as well as in Europe. Refugees are at considerable risk of developing common mental disorders, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Most refugees do not have access to mental health services for these problems because of multiple barriers in national and refugee specific health systems, including limited availability of mental health professionals. To counter some of challenges arising from limited mental health system capacity the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a range of scalable psychological interventions aimed at reducing psychological distress and improving functioning in people living in communities affected by adversity. These interventions, including Problem Management Plus (PM+) and its variants, are intended to be delivered through individual or group face-to-face or smartphone formats by lay, non-professional people who have not received specialized mental health training, We provide an evidence-based rationale for the use of the scalable PM+ oriented programmes being adapted for Syrian refugees and provide information on the newly launched STRENGTHS programme for adapting, testing and scaling up of PM+ in various modalities in both neighbouring and European countries hosting Syrian refugees.
La crisis en Siria ha dado lugar a un gran número de refugiados que buscan asilo en países vecinos a Siria, así como en Europa. Los refugiados corren un riesgo considerable de desarrollar trastornos mentales comunes, como depresión, ansiedad y trastorno por estrés postraumático (TEPT). La mayoría de los refugiados no tienen acceso a servicios de salud mental para estos problemas debido a las múltiples barreras existentes en los sistemas de salud nacionales y específicos para refugiados, incluida una limitada disponibilidad de profesionales de salud mental. Para contrarrestar algunos de los retos derivados de la limitada capacidad del sistema de salud mental, la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) ha desarrollado una gama de intervenciones psicológicas escalables dirigidas a reducir la angustia psicológica y mejorar el funcionamiento de las personas afectadas por la adversidad. Estas intervenciones, que incluyen Problem Management Plus (Gestión de problemas plus, PM+) y sus variantes, están pensadas para ser aplicadas en formatos cara a cara o mediante teléfonos inteligentes a individuos o grupos por personas no profesionales que no han recibido formación especializada en salud mental,Proporcionamos una justificación basada en la evidencia para el uso de programas escalables orientados a la PM+ que están siendo adaptados para refugiados sirios y proporcionamos información sobre el programa STRENGTHS recientemente lanzado para adaptar, probar y ampliar la PM+ en diversas modalidades, tanto en los países vecinos como en los europeos que reciben refugiados de Siria.
叙利亚危机导致了海量的难民到周边国家和欧洲寻求避难所。难民们发展出常见心理障碍的风险非常大，其中包括抑郁，焦虑，创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）。大多数难民没有渠道向心理健康机构寻求帮助，这主要是因为国家医疗和难民健康系统的种种阻碍，包括心理健康专家的数量不足。为了应对心理健康系统容量有限所产生的问题，世界卫生组织（WHO）发展出了一系列的可量化心理干预方法，用来减少心理障碍和提高社区中处于逆境里的人们的生活功能。这些干预方法中就有《问题应对量表Plus》（PM+）和它的其他变型，用来给未经过专业心理健康训练的非专业新手以面对面的或智能手机的形式向个人或群体使用。我们为针对叙利亚难民改良的可量化的PM+为基础的项目提供了有证据支持的原理，并且提供了关于新近运行的STRENGTHS项目的信息，该项目旨在在接受叙利亚难民的周边国家和欧洲国家中适应、测试、扩大PM+的多种形式。.
Keywords: Refugees; Syria; cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT); common mental disorders; e-mental health interventions; implementation; problem solving treatment (PST); psychological interventions; task-shifting; • Syrian refugees are at risk of developing common mental disorders, including depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. • Evidence-based interventions for refugees are available, but refugees have limited access to mental health services for these problems because of limited availability of mental health professionals in Europe and the Middle East. • STRENGTHS will translate and adapt a scalable set of World Health Organization interventions including the evidence-based PM+ for use with Syrian refugees with elevated levels of distress and reduced functioning.• The programmes will be delivered in individual, group or smartphone formats and will be supported by either peer-refugees or local non-professional helpers who will receive training and supervision..