WHO Psychological Interventions for Mental Health Outcomes in Migrants Resettled in Italy: the ADVANCE Trial

"The SH+ programme, developed by WHO is a five-session stress management course. Supervised non-specialist facilitators will deliver it in a group setting in person. SH+ is intended to be transdiagnostic, easily adaptable to different cultures and languages and both meaningful and safe for people with and without mental disorders.~Booster session:~The booster session of SH+ will be provided individually to participants in an online format. It will last approximately 45 minutes, and it will contain a summary of the main contents of the five sessions. The booster session has been developed according to WHO manuals and will be delivered by a trained facilitator.~All participants in the three arms will receive ECAU that will include an information flyer about locally available services for migrants (education, health, social and legal support), and may include community care, social/legal support, etc."

Arm Description: The DWM program has been developed by WHO as a stress management guide for coping with adversity. DWM contains the same content as the SH+ illustrated guide, training the five basic stress management skills with standalone audio. Additionally, participants are guided by a briefly trained helper. In this study, the DWM program will be delivered individually as an online guided intervention. The DWM intervention has been adapted for use on a smartphone or other device with internet access. In the online application tool, a new module (i.e., section) is released every week so participants will be asked to go through the entire DWM intervention within five weeks, with guidance from a helper through brief we brief weekly phone or text-based contacts of approximately 15 minutes. Booster session: The booster session will be provided online individually. It has been developed according to the WHO manual, and it contains a summary of the main contents of the online sessions.

Psychological placebo will consist of a phone call or online meetings with a helper, of the same duration of the DWM sessions. In the first part of the call participants will be reminded about locally available social, health, legal and education services. In the second part of the call participants will choose a discussion topic from topics presented in a list prepared by the research team . Additional session: The additional session of psychological placebo will be provided individually in an online format. It will contain neutral contents and will be facilitated by a helper. It will have the same duration as the booster sessions.