Mental health training programs for non-health professionals and volunteers working with asylum-seekers and refugees: scoping review.
Luísa Micaela Teixeira-Santos, Filipa Isabel Quaresma Santos Ventura, João Artur Oliveira Santos and 2 others
PMID 37638878WHAT IT FOUND
A scoping review found only eleven mental health training programs for volunteers working with refugees.
Most were protocols or manuals without results, and none showed clear effectiveness. Training varied widely in length and content, with few studies reporting outcomes for the volunteers or the people they helped.
Key findings
01The review identified 16 sources describing 11 training programs for non-health professionals working with asylum seekers and refugees, but most lacked implementation data or results.
02Training programs varied significantly in duration, ranging from eight hours to seven weeks, and many were self-guided manuals without supervision or facilitation.
03The review found insufficient evidence on the impact of these trainings on volunteers' well-being or the mental health outcomes of the refugees they served.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review included only 16 sources, with many being protocols or descriptions of interventions without reported results. Data on supervision, training hours, and specific educational strategies were often missing. Some included studies did not specifically target work with asylum seekers and refugees, but rather general humanitarian or crisis settings. The heterogeneity of interventions made it impossible to compare effectiveness or draw conclusions about best practices. The search was limited to five languages and grey literature sources may not have been exhaustive.
Declared interests
No specific funding or conflicts of interest were reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these training programs are effective or evidence-based. The review found mostly protocols and descriptions without outcome data, so there is no proof that these trainings improve volunteer competence or refugee mental health.