Are school-based mental health interventions for war-affected children effective and harmless?

Verena Ertl,Frank Neuner

doi:10.1186/1741-7015-12-84

Abstract

In recent years, different approaches to large-scale mental health service provision for children in war-affected, mainly low- and middle-income, countries have been developed. Some school-based programs aiming at both strengthening resilience and reducing symptoms of trauma-related distress have been evaluated. In an article published in BMC Medicine, Tol and colleagues integrate their findings of the efficacy of universal school-based intervention across four countries and do not recommend classroom-based intervention as a treatment of trauma-related symptoms, since no consistent positive effects were found. On the contrary, for some children this type of universal intervention may impair recovery. Since universal school-based programs similar to the one evaluated here are widely implemented, Tol et al.’s results are highly relevant to inform the field of mental health service provision in war-affected countries.Please see related article http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/12/56.

Highlights

Across the world, many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are affected by armed conflicts that threaten the healthy development of children
High rates of psychological disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression have been found among children living in these regions [1]
Different prevention and intervention programs for war-affected children have been developed and adapted for use so that they can be implemented by trained paraprofessionals, some of them with promising effects in evaluation research [2,3]

Summary

Introduction

Many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are affected by armed conflicts that threaten the healthy development of children. Different prevention and intervention programs for war-affected children have been developed and adapted for use so that they can be implemented by trained paraprofessionals (such as teachers or adult members of the affected communities), some of them with promising effects in evaluation research [2,3].

Results

Conclusion