Post-traumatic Integration – Low-level Psychosocial Support and Intervention for Refugees Erasmus Project

Project Title

Post-traumatic Integration – Low-level Psychosocial Support and Intervention for Refugees

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Post-conflict/post-disaster rehabilitation; Migrants’ issues; Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

Although the massive migration movement that has brought in 2015 more than one million refugees into European countries has become smaller, it can be expected that many refugees will continue to arrive in Europe in the years to come. This huge task requires not only additional budgets for registration, accommodation, food, medical care and education, but also a large work force. While some of these workers have the respective professional background as psychologists, social workers etc., the overwhelming part of people working with refugees, especially in the NGO and voluntary sector, have their administrational, or other professional background and just their good will to help. But sometimes “well meant is the contrary to good”.

This aspect is especially important when we take into consideration that 50 percent of the refugees who arrive in Europe are experiencing psychological distress and mental illness resulting from trauma. As many as half of those refugees could be suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, post-traumatic problems are often overlooked, simply because most so-called frontliners – people in direct contact with arriving refugees and asylum seekers – are not aware of them.

The objective of the project ‘Post-traumatic Integration – Low-level Psychosocial Support and Intervention for Refugees’ is therefore to raise the awareness about the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among refugees and asylum seekers, its symptoms and possibilities for early low-level mental health interventions, and to support the continuing professional development of frontline workers (medical, social, legal, etc) and educators (teachers, trainers, youth workers, etc). The ultimate goal is to help to promote the effective integration of refugees in the European host societies.

The most important outputs of the project have been:
– the Awareness Raising Guidelines, containing a simple, practical tool to support and inform in a comprehensive way people working with refugees with traumatic backgrounds about the socio-political and legal frameworks of refugees, the aspects that have an influence on their mental state, and the long-term effects of psychological distress;
– the Action Sheets that consist of two parts: (a) the Training Modules on post-traumatic problems and PTSD, which address diverse client behaviours and key findings from research; and (b) the Activities, which contain recommendations and key actions for meeting the needs of refugees;
– the e-Platform to support the delivery of all online tools of the project, and all online interactive tools such as forums, blogs, and social networking applications;
– the Mobile Applications, which integrate the most important project materials in a pedagogically for access on smartphones;
– the project Website, containing all information about the project objectives and the project materials (https://posttraumatic-integration.eu).

The project has been able to reach out to more than 2500 persons, consisting of frontline workers and the organisations working with them, other stakeholders, academics and policy makers. It is estimated that the immediate project impact will be an improvement of the quality of psychosocial services for thousands of refugees across Europe each year. In the longer run, it is expected that several thousands frontline workers and educators will participate at various awareness raising and training measures in the countries of the partnership.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 242196,78 Eur

Project Coordinator

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN & Country: BE

Project Partners

• INTEGRA INSTITUT INSTITUT ZA RAZVOJ CLOVEKOVIH POTENCIALOV VELENJE
• QUALED obcianske zdruzenie pre kvalifikáciu a vzdelávanje
• SVEUCILISTE U RIJECI, MEDICINSKI FAKULTET
• AKADIMAIKO DIADIKTYO
• Wissenschaftsinitiative Niederösterreich (WIN)
• Medizinische Flüchtlingshilfe Bochum e.V.