Feasibility and acceptability of Problem Management Plus with Emotional Processing (PM plus EP) for refugee youth living in the Netherlands: study protocol
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Documents
- Feasibility and acceptability of Problem Management Plus with Emotional Processing (PM+EP) for refugee youth living in the Netherlands
Final published version, 1.62 MB, PDF document
Background Refugee youth experience hardships associated with exposure to trauma in their homelands and during and after displacement, which results in higher rates of common mental disorders. The World Health Organization (WHO) developed Problem Management Plus (PM+), a non-specialist-delivered brief psychological intervention, for individuals who have faced adversity. PM+ comprises problem-solving, stress management, behavioural activation and strengthening social support. However, it does not include an emotional processing component, which is indicated in trauma-exposed populations. Objective This pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of PM+, adapted to Syrian, Eritrean and Iraqi refugee youth residing in the Netherlands, with and without a newly developed Emotional Processing (EP) Module. Methods Refugee youth (N = 90) between 16 and 25 years of age will be randomized into PM+ with care-as-usual (CAU), (n = 30), PM+ with Emotional Processing (PM+EP) with CAU (n = 30) or CAU only (n = 30). Inclusion criteria are self-reported psychological distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale; K10 > 15) and impaired daily functioning (WHO Disability Assessment Schedule; WHODAS 2.0 > 16). Participants will be assessed at baseline, one-week post-intervention and three-month follow-up. The main outcome is the feasibility and acceptability of the adapted PM+ and PM+EP. The secondary outcomes are self-reported psychological distress, functional impairment, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity and diagnosis, social support, and self-identified problems. The pilot RCT will be succeeded by a process evaluation including trial participants, participants' significant others, helpers, and mental health professionals (n = 20) to evaluate their experiences with the PM+ and PM+EP programmes. Results and Conclusion This is the first study that evaluates the feasibility of PM+ for this age range with an emotional processing module integrated. The results may inform larger RCTs and implementation of PM+ interventions among refugee youth.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 1947003 |
Journal | European Journal of Psychotraumatology |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
Number of pages | 11 |
ISSN | 2000-8198 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2021 |
- Refugee youth, scalable interventions, common mental health problems, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS, INTERVENTION, TRAUMA, ADULTS
Research areas
Number of downloads are based on statistics from Google Scholar and www.ku.dk
ID: 276320993