Evaluation of Two Community-based Mental Health Interventions for Violence-Displaced Afro-Descendants in Colombia.

It was developed for treating symptoms related to violent trauma, i.e. symptoms of depression, anxiety and distress, among a population victimized by violence and torture in Colombia. The most relevant components for treatment of these 3 problematic issues were identified from literature review and a panel of experts. Descriptions and schemes have been developed in order to guarantee facility of use by community counselors who have little background in mental health skills. These counselors, who will be called Lay Psychosocial Community Workers (LPCW), will receive training in this technique before beginning of interventions. Application of this technique will be supervised constantly by mental health professionals (psychologist or social worker) from the project team.

It consists on teaching skills to people in the community to provide mental health therapy. Therapy will be performed by LPCW under constant supervision of mental health professionals (psychologists or social workers). Sessions will begin with a series of introductory activities that motivates participants to propose different problems that they would like to solve in the group. A participant proposed a problem and he/she will be asked to talk about it. LPCW and/or psychologist will support individuals if anyone needs help to solve a psychological crisis. At the end of this narration, participants will be asked about who has had a similar situation, and how they solved it. In this way, proposed solutions will be collected by the LPCW. Finally, session closes with a motivating activity.

Standby group: they will be assessed at baseline with the initial survey and they will wait between 10 and 12 weeks; an exit assessment will be performed with the study instrument. After the exit survey, control group participants will have an appointment with a professional psychologist to determine whether they require a mental health treatment. Those with such necessity will receive treatment in the ACOPLE center by professional psychologists or they will be referred to other health care level according to the type of psychopathology (e.g., psychosis) or its severity. Also, participants in the control group will be monitoring monthly by phone calls and if they have any psychological problem, they will be assessed in the ACOPLE center.