Mental health needs of people affected by war and forced migration focus of conference

Posted on: 03 May 2024

Experts in forced displacement, peacebuilding and development aid will gather in Dublin this week to discuss how best to support the mental health and psychosocial needs of people affected by war, forced displacement and resettlement.  

The two-day event taking place on the 7th and 8th of May 2024 is hosted by Trinity Centre for Forced Migration Studies in collaboration with the Boston College Research Program on Children & Adversity (RPCA). It will take place in the Durkan Lecture Theatre, St James's Hospital. See here for more information and full programme.

Panel discussions over the two days will focus on themes including: Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) for displaced populations, bridging the gap between humanitarian response and building systems in communities affected by war and violence, peacebuilding and preventing intergenerational cycles of violence, the problem of the relief to development gap, and lived experience and participatory research.

Speakers will include key stakeholders and researchers from the University of Copenhagen, United Nations Refugee Agency, UNICEF, GIZ, and more. 

The two-day event aims to expand and strengthen a network of global experts in the field of translating evidence into practice.

Theresa Betancourt, Director of the Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA), Boston College School of Social Work, said:

“For far too long as a field, we have not adequately bridged the gap between humanitarian response, peacekeeping, and the subsequent development agenda.  In places where I have worked for more than 22 years, like Sierra Leone in West Africa and Rwanda in East Africa, we saw an important humanitarian response that brought funding, human resources, and technical assistance in the moment of acute crisis. However, for low-resource countries like Sierra Leone, none of this translated into lasting mental health or social services and systems-building for the longer term: we missed an opportunity to support a generation affected by extreme trauma and disruption.”

Rachel Hoare, Director of the Trinity Centre for Forced Migration Studies, added:

“As a clinician-researcher working with unaccompanied minors in Ireland, I witness the many resourcing challenges in helping these young people to access appropriate mental health and psychosocial supports once they arrive in the host country.  Although they are now in a place of physical safety, the ‘body keeps the score’ of the psychological trauma which results from the witnessing and experiencing of horrific events in their home countries and during their journeys to Ireland and impacts in so many ways on their daily lives.”

This symposium hosted by RPCA and Trinity will convene leaders, policy makers, and researchers to shape an agenda to change how the field thinks about bridging the so-called “triple nexus” between humanitarian response, peacebuilding, and development actions. 

Theresa Betancourt, said: “Given the current issues with forced migration and armed conflict around the world today, we are all the more propelled and obligated to respond with evidence and bring the tools of disciplines like implementation science to strengthen systems holistically, so that we can plan for the long-term, even while responding to acute crisis caused by conflict, forced migration, and other forms of instability that affects the lives of children, youth, and families.”

Dr Rachel Hoare added: “This event will allow students and faculty from Trinity College and Boston College to engage in discussions with some key policy and community leaders in the field.  By pushing the field in this direction, societies can respond more effectively and sustainably as they consider how they can build back better and develop the systems needed for their citizens’ mental health as well as social service needs for communities and generations to come.”

More about the Trinity Centre for Forced Migration Studies 

The main aim of the Trinity Centre for Forced Migration Studies is to foster inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research, and to develop teaching and training in relation to forced migration. The Centre aims to bridge scholarship, teaching, policy and practice through developing a collaborative community of researchers, practitioners, and experts by experience, in order to seek funding opportunities, develop teaching and training modules and programmes, disseminate research findings and promote networking initiatives.  The Centre is also developing research collaborations between colleagues from Trinity College Dublin and other higher education institutions as well as civic society groups and the community and voluntary sectors, building knowledge and understanding which will ultimately help to improve the lives of those who have been forcibly displaced. Teaching and training delivery will be research-led, collaborative and co-created where this is ethically appropriate.

More about the Boston College Research Program on Children and Adversity

The Research Program on Children and Adversity at Boston College School of Social Work focuses on observational research to understand trajectories of risk and resilience in children facing multiple forms of adversity while also using these research outcomes to develop and test evidence-based interventions to promote child health, development and family functioning. The program team, including a network of talented local collaborators, has developed and evaluated several transdiagnostic interventions that are both feasible, effective and able to be integrated into a range of social protection, health and education programs in low- and middle-income countries. Using implementation science methods, the program also tests implementation science strategies for quality improvement and sustainment of integrated evidence-based interventions including collaborative team approaches to improve fidelity and quality of the interventions to support early childhood development, violence prevention, and family strengthening so that they can be effectively and sustainably delivered at scale in low-resource settings. Currently, there are programs in the U.S. with resettled Afghan families, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. There are also adaptations of RPCA research in Colombia and Kenya. 

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