Submission opportunity-MHPSS in Forced Migration
Deadline for submissions: 19th October 2020
Maximum length: 2,500 words.
Click here to learn more about the opportunity – https://www.fmreview.org/mental-health
This issue of FMR will provide a forum for affected communities, practitioners, advocates, policymakers and researchers to share experience and good practice, debate perspectives and offer recommendations. In particular, the FMR Editors are looking for practice-oriented submissions, reflecting a diverse range of experience and opinions, which address questions such as the following:
- What is known about the prevalence and nature of the MHPSS needs of those who have been displaced, and of responses to them? What are the particular challenges to conducting research in some areas and key gaps in knowledge?
- How can the effectiveness of support be appropriately assessed in displacement contexts?
- Have certain kinds of approaches proved more effective than others in providing appropriate support in situations where there are insufficient resources – infrastructure, personnel or financial – to meet large-scale and/or long-term MHPSS needs?
- What barriers are there to integrating basic mental health care into primary health-care settings in emergency contexts where MHPSS provision is otherwise limited or does not exist, and what good practice exists in addressing these barriers?
- Are there specific challenges to providing MHPSS for displaced people who are still on the move? What examples exist of good practice in cooperation across regional or country borders?
- How can the experience and expertise built up by local communities of practice in the area of mental health inform programming that is executed at a much larger scale?
- How do the MHPSS needs of displaced people differ across different settings – in systems of asylum, in resettlement, in integration and in return? What steps can be taken to promote resilience and to enable those who have been displaced to maintain psychosocial well-being, including on their return after displacement?
- How effective are community-based means of psychosocial support such as those provided by faith communities? Have community-based models proven more successful in certain contexts, or in meeting specific certain needs over others?
- What is the role of cultural mediators in assisting displaced people to access care? Can such mediators be effective in tackling stigma around mental ill-health, including among hard-to-reach groups?
- Given that cultural bias (among practitioners, policymakers, researchers and hosts) may create barriers to the effective, appropriate, non-discriminatory identification of need for and provision of MHPSS services, how can this be recognised and mitigated for?
- What part do new communication technologies have to play in the identification of needs and delivery of care? What are the settings in which such technologies have proven effective and what forms do these take?
- How are existing guidelines and tools such as the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings and the WHO/UNHCR Assessing Mental Health and Psychosocial Needs and Resources toolkit for humanitarian settings applied across various contexts and how do they shape provision?
- What requirements do those designing policy and programming need to take into account in relation to MHPSS service provision for displaced people and for host communities, and what are the challenges emerging from creating parallel structures?
- What design and delivery choices must be considered so that MHPSS programming takes into consideration the specific needs of certain groups including children and youth, older people, those living with disabilities and LGBTIQ+ individuals?
- Are there examples of effective provision from humanitarian agencies in supporting the psychosocial well-being and MHPSS needs of staff working in situations of displacement and with survivors of displacement?
- In what ways has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the provision of MHPSS to displaced people, and how have those providing MHPSS been able to adapt to the challenges presented? What has proven critical to the continuance of the effective delivery of services?
BEFORE WRITING YOUR ARTICLE: If you are interested in contributing, please email the Editors at fmr@qeh.ox.ac.uk with a few sentences about your proposed topic so that we can provide feedback and let you know if we are interested in receiving your submission.
WHEN WRITING/SUBMITTING YOUR ARTICLE: Please take note of our guidelines for authors and ensure your article, when submitted, complies with our submission checklist: details at www.fmreview.org/writing-fmr. We do not accept articles that do not comply with our checklist.
Please note: We ask all authors to give appropriate consideration to the particular relevance of their responses to persons with disabilities, to LGBTIQ+ persons, to older persons, and to other groups with specific vulnerabilities, and to seek to include a gendered approach as part of their articles.
While we are looking for examples of good, replicable practice and experience as well as sound analysis of the issues at stake, we also urge writers to discuss failures and difficulties: what does/did not work so well, and why?
We are particularly keen to reflect the experiences and knowledge of communities and individuals directly affected by these questions. If you have suggestions of colleagues or community representatives who may wish to contribute, please do email us; we are happy to work with individuals to help them develop an article and very keen to have displaced people’s perspectives reflected in the magazine.
Deadline for submission of articles: 19th October 2020
Maximum length: 2,500 words.
