Tackling the complex issue of perinatal mental health.

Thinking Healthy (TH), a brief psychological intervention that can be delivered by trained and supervised community health care workers. It uses simple cognitive behavioral techniques to provide mothers with support and to improve mental health outcomes for the mother and new-born infant.

In this fourth episode, Sarah Harrison, Director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement MHPSS Hub, speaks with Dr Waood Afara, Senior Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Officer at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Yemen‏, and Dr Elisabetta Dozio Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Specialist at Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger- AAH) in France. Dr. Waood and Dr. Elisabetta are experts in both the research and practice of the Thinking Healthy intervention.

Together we examine why dealing with maternal depression is important in humanitarian settings and explain how the intervention works in programming, including how to integrate TH in the workload of already overburdened community health workers. The link between caring for mothers and improving outcomes for children is explored, as are the cultural adaptations required to implement TH and measure its effectiveness. Key insights include importance of empathy and understanding from community and family members to support mothers in recovering, and the critical role that community health workers can play in improved maternal mental health if trained, supervised, and empowered.

Key resources for practitioners

Thinking Healthy: A manual for psychological management of perinatal depression (WHO manual in multiple languages)

Thinking Healthy Training Guide for community health workers and volunteers (MHPSS Hub)

Baby Friendly Spaces: Holistic Approach in Emergencies (ACF Guide)

Read more about the research:

Dozio E, Wamba V, Pueugueu I. Adapting the Thinking Healthy Programme for Perinatal Depression: A Culturally Tailored Approach in Three Central African Countries. European Psychiatry. 2025;68(S1): S151-S151. doi:10.1192/j.eurpsy.2025.386

Tomlinson, M., Chaudhery, D., Ahmadzai, H. et al. Identifying and treating maternal mental health difficulties in Afghanistan: A feasibility study. Int J Ment Health Syst 14, 75 (2020).

Evidence from the Frontline: Mental Health in Crisis-Affected Contexts is a six-episode mini-series produced in collaboration between the MHPSS Hub and Elrha, designed for practitioners working in humanitarian and crisis contexts, the series highlights impactful interventions and practical insights from experts in the field.

On 3 September 2025 the docudrama the Voice of Hind Rajab had its world premiere during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. The movie directed by Kaouther Ben Hania received 24 minutes of standing ovation and won the Grand Jury Prize.

For our colleague Nisreen Qawas, MHPSS director for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the voice of Hind Rajab was the person at the other end of the emergency call she received on 29th of January 2024 – the day five-year old Hind was killed alongside her family members and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society team that was sent to rescue her.

This was not the first or likely the last time Nisreen was losing colleagues in the line of duty, and not the first or likely the last time she had to deal with the loss and the feeling of responsibility. MHPSS Hub Director, Sarah Harrison interviewed Nisreen about moral injury in the line of duty.

Find more information about the work of Palestine Red Crescent Society:

Website: Palestine Red Crescent Society

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/palestine-red-crescent-society-prcs-2083371b5/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PalestineRCS

Find more information about Hind Rajab:

The Voice of Hind Rajab official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_RC04CZpAY

Hind Under Siege official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loucaVTr85k

The Killing of Hind Rajab Forensic Architecture: https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/the-killing-of-hind-rajab

The podcast Heartbeat of Humanity is mainly for staff and volunteers in the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, especially staff and volunteers working in mental health and psychosocial support services.

Listen to the podcast here or subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast or wherever you find your podcasts.

Find more episodes of Heartbeat of Humanity.

When is a transdiagnostic approach the best route to quality mental health care in crisis affected context, and how does it work in practice?

In this third episode, Sarah Harrison, Director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement MHPSS Hub, talks to three experts with extensive experience with CETA, the Common Elements Treatment Approach System of Care: Dr Laura Murray (Founder, CETA Global; Senior Scientist, john Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), Cherry Soemyint (CETA trainer, Myanmar) and David Mwanza (CETA trainer, Zambia).

Together they explore how CETA is adapted for different service-user groups and contexts; and CETA’s potential to be linked with different interventions for long-term impact, as well as approaches to supervision and cost-effectiveness considerations. They talk about how it can be flexibly implemented and adapted to diverse countries, communities and contexts in response to needs-with CETA clients ranging from people with HIV in Zambia, to pregnant and lactating mothers in the Thai Burmese border.

CETA is a transdiagnostic system of care; starting with a brief assessment that helps triage and create a clinical care pathway, along with ongoing monitoring and evaluation. It is evidence-based for all ages (children, youth and adults) and is built from evidence-based CBT-cognitive behavioural therapy elements. It is meant to streamline and simplify care – moving away from siloed assessments and treatments (or those that assess or treat only one problem area).

Key resources for practitioners:

www.cetaglobal.org

www.ceta-global.com

Read more about the research:

Evaluation of phone-delivered psychotherapy for refugee children

Integrating an evidence-based mental health intervention into non-communicable disease care (coming soon)

Evidence from the Frontline: Mental Health in Crisis-Affected Contexts is a six-episode mini-series produced in collaboration between the MHPSS Hub and Elrha, designed for practitioners working in humanitarian and crisis contexts, the series highlights impactful interventions and practical insights from experts in the field.

Do Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) really improve children’s mental health?

Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS) are safe, structured places established quickly in emergencies where children can play, learn, and receive psychosocial support, to promote protection and wellbeing.

In this second episode, Sarah Harrison, Acting Director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement MHPSS Hub, speaks with Professor Alastair Ager, Queen Margaret University and Columbia University and Phiona Koyiet, MHPSS Lead, World Vision International, for a practitioner-focused reflection.

Together they examine what the evidence says about effectiveness and impact of CFS for children’s wellbeing, protection and mental health, drawing on rigorous research (see below) and unpack what this means in practice: setting and monitoring quality indicators, ensuring skilled facilitators (“animators”), and the importance of integrating CFS within a tiered system of care with clear referral pathways - since CFS are not ‘silver bullets’. They discuss field adaptations, cultural relevance, costs and staffing, and how evidence has shaped World Vision’s programming guidance.

Key resources for practitioners

Tools and guidance for monitoring and evaluating Child Friendly Spaces

The Toolkit for Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings

Read more about the research:

Evaluating the longer-term mental health, developmental and systems impact of Child Friendly Spaces in humanitarian emergencies

An RCT of enhanced Child Friendly Space interventions for children affected by conflict and displacement

Evidence from the Frontline: Mental Health in Crisis-Affected Contexts is a six-episode mini-series produced in collaboration between the MHPSS Hub and Elrha, designed for practitioners working in humanitarian and crisis contexts, the series highlights impactful interventions and practical insights from experts in the field.

How do we adapt an evidence-based mental health intervention for different communities in crisis-affected settings?

In this first episode Sarah Harrison, Acting Director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement MHPSS Hub, interviews Ken Carswell a Mental health Specialist from WHO and Lidiia Kasianchuk a psychologist from Ukraine with experience of implementing SH+.

Together they unpack what practitioners need to know about implementation of both the book and group-based SH+ approaches, including field use and adaptation experiences; the impact of SH+ on service users and staff (the role of group facilitators is key). The importance of practice-based evidence and community engagement are explored, and the need for monitoring and evaluation, as well as more rigorous research to inform scaling and to explore motivation aspects.

SH+ is a stress management course developed by WHO supported by Elrha’s Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) and the EU Horizon2020 programme.

Key resources for practitioners

• Psychological interventions implementation manual: integrating evidence-based psychological interventions into existing services
• Self-Help Plus (sh+): a group-based stress management course for adults
• The Self-Help Plus (‎SH+)‎ training manual: for training facilitators to deliver the SH+ course
• Self-Help Plus (SH+) online orientation course
• Doing What Matters in Times of Stress

Research and further reading

• Self-Help Plus (SH+): a new WHO stress management packageGuided self-help to reduce psychological distress in South Sudanese female refugees in Uganda: a cluster randomised trial
• Effectiveness of a WHO self-help psychological intervention for preventing mental disorders among Syrian refugees in Turkey: a randomized controlled trial
• Effectiveness of a WHO self-help psychological intervention to alleviate stress among healthcare workers in the context of COVID-19 in China: a randomised controlled trial
• Effectiveness of Self-Help Plus in its digital version in reducing anxiety and post-traumatic symptomatology among nursing home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: secondary analysis of randomised controlled trial data
• Highlighting Complementary Benefits of Problem Management Plus (PM+) and Doing What Matters in Times of Stress (DWM) Interventions Delivered Alongside Broader Community MHPSS Programming in Zummar, Ninewa Governorate of Iraq

Evidence from the Frontline: Mental Health in Crisis Affected Contexts is a six-episode mini-series produced in collaboration between the MHPSS Hub and Elrha, designed for practitioners working in humanitarian and crisis contexts, the series highlights impactful interventions and practical insights from experts in the field.

In this short teaser, Acting Director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement MHPSS Hub Sarah Harrison introduces a coming podcast series on the Heartbeat of Humanity channel.

The six-episode podcast series is called Evidence from the Frontline – mental health in crisis affected contexts and it is produced in a collaboration between the MHPSS Hub and Elrha - Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance.

Designed for MHPSS practitioners working in humanitarian and crisis contexts, the series highlights impactful interventions and offers practical insights from experts in the field. It will explore critical topics including effectiveness, implementation, adaptation, integration into existing programmes, human resources, costs, and the importance of cultural and contextual relevance.

So, if the Heartbeat of Humanity channel sometimes look, sound, or feel a little different in the coming months – don’t worry. If you’ve found value in Heartbeat of Humanity, Evidence from the Frontline will also be for you.

In this episode of Heartbeat of Humanity, Communications Officer Jesper Guhle interviews MHPSS specialists Cátia Matos and Guleed Dualeh about the first regional MHPSS trainings conducted by the Red Cross Red Crescent MHPSS Hub.

These two trainings, one in Kenya and one in Paraguay, mark a paradigm shift for the MHPSS Hub and Cátia and Guleed explains the challenges but also the major advantages of conducting MHPSS trainings regionally.

In this episode of Heartbeat of Humanity, through four interviews, Communications Officer Jesper Guhle explores the MHPSS programmes and services provided by Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies across the African region.

Interviewees:

• Serah Kalumbilo, Zambia Red Cross Society
• Ernest P. Nyame Annan, Ghana Red Cross Society
• Omar Sheikh Mohamud, Somali Red Crescent Society
• Nathalie Nyamukeba, ICRC

In the podcast, a Community of Practice for Red Cross Red Crescent MHPSS focal points in the African region is being mentioned. For more information about the Community of Practice, contact MHPSS specialist Guleed Dualeh, gudua@rodekors.dk