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

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Coordinator)

Corrado Barbui
Professor
corrado.barbui@univr.it
Università Degli Studi di Verona

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (in Finland)

Maritta Välimäki, PhD, RN
Professor
mava@utu.fi
tel.int +358-2-333 8495

CO-INVESTIGATORS

Tella Lantta
Minna Anttila

TEAM MEMBERS

Kirsi Hipp
Jaakko Varpula

AIM

  1. To test the effectiveness of Self-Help Plus (SH+) intervention in reducing the incidence of common mental disorders in asylum seekers and refugees resettled in Europe, and in improving mental health symptoms and psychological functioning.
  2. To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of SH+ In European countries

CONTENT (In Finland)

  • Overview of site country
  • Adaptation of Arabic version of SH+
  • Training of facilitators to deliver the SH+
  • Pilot testing of SH+
  • Multicentre parallel-group randomized controlled trial with SH+ intervention developed by the World Health Organization.

IMPLICATIONS

  • Knowledge about second fully powered RCT using SH+ with a different target group: all refugees and asylum seekers in Europe and Turkey
  • Improved access to mental health care for vulnerable population
  • Use of brief simple low-intensity interventions in mental health care
  • In the long term, RE-DEFINE will contribute to the equity in health promotion and illness prevention efforts, and to provision of effective, equitable and affordable health services

COLLABORATORS

  • Università Degli Studi di Verona, Italy
  • World Health Organization, Switzerland
  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Medical University of Vienna, Austria
  • Istanbul SEHIRr Universitesi, Turkey
  • University of Ulm, Germany
  • Danish Red Cross, Denmark
  • University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
  • University of York, United Kingdom

FUNDERS

  • European Commission, Horizon 2020

Website