Manual on Community-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies and Displacement

This Manual aims to facilitate mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) experts and managers in designing, implementing and evaluating community-based MHPSS (CB MHPSS) programmes, projects and activities for emergency-affected and displaced populations in humanitarian settings. It is specifically designed to support managers and experts hired by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). However, it can also be used, in its entirety or in some of its components, by MHPSS experts and managers working for IOM’s partners, including international and national governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), countries, donors and civil society groups.

For this reason, the document is open source, refers to tools and researches of different agencies, and was conceived and reviewed by a variety of experts and practitioners from several organizations. Although it is written for an international intergovernmental organization, smaller non-governmental agencies can make use of parts of the manual, based on identified priorities of their own programmes. The manual consists of 16 chapters and two annexes. Some chapters introduce theories, others describe processes (like training, technical supervision, assessment and community mobilization), others instruct on how to organize activities (from sport and art based activities to community based supports for people with severe mental disorders), and some try to tackle the operational dimension of linking MHPSS to other sectors, like protection, conflict transformation and livelihood support.