Development and implementation of a group based mental health intervention for unaccompanied minors

Abstract

Unaccompanied refugee minors (UMs) are at significant risk to experience severe mental health symptoms (Derluyn, Broekaert & Schuyten). Trauma‐focused treatments have been found to be effective for traumatized refugees (Slobodin & de Jong). However, trauma‐focused mental health services are seldom available, and treatment fails when UMs lack trust in service providers (Majumder, O'Reilly, Karim & Vostanis). In order to address this gap, a 10‐session group based mental health intervention for UMs was developed and then pilot tested in 3 accommodation units for UMs in Finland. The implementation and effectiveness of the intervention was studied by qualitative and quantitative methods. The process was completed by 18 UMs. Symptom measures showed no statistically significant changes on the mental health variables studied. However, staff members and UMs reported increased trust and communication, and participating staff members felt empowered to facilitate groups independently. The group model promoted social interaction and built trust in the accommodation units. Further studies are required to UMs.

Interventions Targeting the Wellbeing of Migrant Youths: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…One writing for recovery therapy program, was identified as best practice (Kalantari et al, 2012), while further 15 studies were considered as promising practice (Al-Rousan et al, 2018;Annan et al, 2017;Baker & Jones, 2006;Barrett et al, 2000;Ellis et al, 2013;Marsh, 2012;Meyer DeMott et al, 2017;Millar & Warwick, 2019;Möhlen et al, 2005;Panter-Brick et al, 2018;Quinlan et al, 2016;Rousseau et al, 2017;Sarkadi et al, 2017;Stark et al, 2018;Van der Gucht et al, 2019). The remaining 12 studies are deemed emerging practice (Barrett et al, 2001(Barrett et al, , 2003Beehler et al, 2012;Ehntholt et al, 2005;Fazel et al, 2009;Garoff et al, 2019;Hughes & Scott, 2013;Nathan et al, 2013; Onyut et al, 2005;Oras et al, 2004;Schauer et al, 2004;Yankey & Biswas, 2012). While all the studies reported some wellbeing outcomes for migrant youth, the evidence indicates that music, arts, and sports intervention programs are beneficial for all youth, especially for young people with exposure to traumatic events.…”

Interventions targeting the wellbeing of young people of migrant and refugee backgrounds: A systematic review of the literature

“…The majority of included studies (86 per cent) focussed on young people with migrant and refugee backgrounds who had either recently arrived with their families or had been living in their respective host countries for a while. The remaining four studies focused on unaccompanied minors (Garoff et al, 2019;Meyer DeMott et al, 2017;Sarkadi et al, 2018;Van der Gucht et al, 2019). This scarce evidence base may reflect the recent increase in numbers of this particularly vulnerable group of migrant children observed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other international organisations (Ustymenko, 2020).…”

“…A group-based mental health intervention for unaccompanied minors, that offered psychoeducation, information on wellbeing, coping resources, the tree of the future exercise, and topics identified by participants, such as sleep, pain, intimate relationships, emotions, and anger, found no effectiveness of the intervention on the mental health of participants. However, the authors noted that engagement with the immediate social environment and taking part in daily activities was associated with improved wellbeing (Garoff, Kangaslampi, & Peltonen, 2019). Another group-based intervention aimed at improving participants' feelings of safety, stabilisation, anxiety and stress management, and building emotion regulation skills and trauma education, reported significantly improved long-term life satisfaction and hope for the…”

“…scored strong on their qualitative part, and while they received a weak overall score for their quantitative part, they did demonstrate strength in the domains of selection bias, study design, and data collection methods. Two studies(Garoff et al, 2019; Hughes & Scott, 2013) were rated as moderate in their qualitative part and weak in their quantitative part. However, within that overall weak score for the quantitative part, Hughes and Scott (2013) demonstrated strength in the data collection domain andGaroff et al (2019) in the four domains study design, data collection, confounders and withdrawal/dropouts (Appendix A and B).…”

How effective is group intervention in the treatment for unaccompanied and accompanied refugee minors with mental health difficulties: A systematic review

“…The studies in this category unanimously reported positive perceptions of group intervention from the qualitative data. This includes improvements observed by teachers (Ehntholt et al, 2005); more positive themes drawn in pictures during the sessions (Perilli et al, 2019); improved communication and trust (Garoff et al, 2019); making use of the taught mindfulness exercises as a new coping strategy (Van der Gucht et al, 2019). The most comprehensive qualitative evaluation was from Sarkadi et al (2017) which saw several facets of improvements through the themes of social support; normalisation; valuable tools; comprehensibility; manageability and meaningfulness.…”