MIST
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Guided Self-Help Movement-Based Intervention to Improve Physical and Psychological Outcomes in Survivors of Torture and Trauma in Wales and Beyond
IRAS ID
302811
Contact name
Paula Foscarini-Craggs
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 31 days
Research summary
In 2019 the Welsh government committed to ensure all refugees and asylum seekers had access to health services that addressed their complex needs. At least a third of refugees and asylum seekers experience both mental and physical health issues due to torture and trauma experienced in their home country and during their flight but at the moment. It is established that mental and physical symptoms can create a feedback loop, limiting the effectiveness of treating mental or physical symptoms separately. In Wales there is no one health service that can address their mental and physical health together. This study will apply established principles of guided self-help to adapt an existing physiotherapy led intervention that combines physical movement, relaxation techniques, and goal setting to improve outcomes for trauma and torture survivors. The new intervention will address both mental and physical health issues, and will offer an intervention that can be delivered within community and peer-led organisations.
We will work with both refugees who have experienced torture and trauma, and a range of people who provide support to refugees. Through a series of interviews, we will ask supporters of refugees, and refugees themselves, about their experience of the current supportive interventions for both psychological and physical symptoms, their experiences with guided self-help programmes, and how these concepts could be embedded within an existing movement-based intervention. The information gathered will be used to design a prototype combined intervention, which is likely to include participant resources, such as a workbook, to support them in a guided self-help approach. At the end of the study, the team will have co-designed a Guided Self-Help movement-based intervention and accompanying material.
REC name
N/A
REC reference
N/A