Mental health promotion strategies for migrants and refugees in Europe: main outcomes, recommendations and lessons learnt from myhealth european project.

Introduction: Upon their arrival in Europe, migrants and refugees often face multiple and highly complex stressors, which risk to have a lasting impact on their mental health. These may be related to traumatisation experiences before, during and after the migration process. Mental health promotion for vulnerable migrants and refugees (VMRs) has been a neglected area of intervention in transcultural psychiatry. Objectives: MyHealth project (2017-2020) is a European initiative that aims to develop/reinforce models of increased health (and mental health) care access and improved health (and mental health) services for VMRs. Methods: Four study sites (Barcelona, Berlin, Brno and Athens) were included. Through a participatory and social innovative approach and while engaging VMRs, professionals as well as the general public of the host community, an intercultural needs assessment took place followed by a tools' development phase and a pilot testing of specific tools identified. Results: Cross-country observations conclude that the coverage of social needs may primarily determine the mental wellbeing of VMRs, and their mental health state can consequently affect their help-seeking behaviours for any experienced physical condition. The prioritization of needs and barriers as viewed by professionals may differ from how are perceived by VMRs. This gap is conditioned by professionals' bias and the intercultural contact between VMRs and host community. To overcome such barriers, specific interventions were piloted at every site (e.g. cultural competence trainings, empowerment of female refugees). Conclusions: The context-specific results allow to draw outcomes, recommendations and lessons learnt which can inform the agendas of mental health promotion strategies and European mental health policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]