Children in humanitarian settings cannot or do not access mental health services although some may need psychological treatment. Refugees, for instance, face restricted access to conventional primary health care centres and the humanitarian health organisations working in such areas are confronted with many obstacles. In order to overcome these, a transdiagnostic psychological treatment programme, Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA), was adapted and piloted for delivery to Syrian refugee children in Lebanon by trained lay counsellors over the phone. The newly adapted telephone-delivered CETA (t-CETA) facilitates the provision of psychological intervention for children in humanitarian emergency and other low-resource settings with limited access to mental health services. This project was funded by R2HC.

This project was presented during a webinar which introduced the key elements of t-CETA and the experience of delivering it in Lebanon. In addition, qualitative and quantitative research findings on the feasibility, acceptability and efficacy of the program were shared along with free resources that were developed as part of the project. This webinar also allowed to share first research findings from a study on phone-delivered psychological treatment of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon

A recording and the slides of the webinar are now available for free on this link.

You can also download a guidance document on delivering psychological treatment to children over phone.