Integration of Refugees Into Public Mental Health Care (INT_REF_MH)

University of Konstanz

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Psychiatric Disorders From Chapters 3 and 4 of ICD10

Treatments: Other: "coordinated and peer supported mental health care"; Behavioral: "standard psychotherapeutic care in the public healthcare system"

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT04832035

Refugee Integration 2021

Details and patient eligibility

About

There are specific barriers to utilise psychotherapeutic services for refugees with mental health problems in the German public health care system. This study aims to evaluate additional organisational components that are hypothesised to improve service utilisation.

In a randomised controlled trial, refugees with mental health problems are identified by peers, subsequently assessed by professional staff and referred to public psychotherapeutic health services who offer standard care. Participants are assigned to care as usual or to "coordinated and peer supported mental health care"; the latter includes several additional organisational assistance components, i.e. a coordination center, trained peers to support treatment utilisation, a support and training center for therapists, and a interpreter pool. Measures include service utilisation and symptom change after 6 months. Furthermore the study evaluates whether trained peers can correctly identify participants with mental health problems.

Enrollment: 120 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Psychiatric diagnosis from Chapters 3 and 4 of ICD10
• Participant applied for asylum in Germany
• Entry to Germany after 2012
• Participants is motivated to utilise psychotherapeutic services
• Patient speaks one of the languages in which services are offered (i.e. German, English, French, Arabic, Kurdish, Dari, Farsi, Urdu, Pashto, Tirginya, Somali)

Exclusion criteria

• Mental disorder that requires inpatient treatment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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120 participants in 2 patient groups

Standard psychotherapeutic care + coordinated and peer supported mental health care"

Experimental group

Description:

Participants receive standard psychotherapeutic care in the public healthcare system. For participants and therapists in this group standard care and additional organisational support is available which is labeled "coordinated and peer supported mental health care". This includes several additional organisational assistance components that are currently not part of the services of the public mental health care system, i.e. a coordination center, trained peers to support treatment utilisation, a support and training center for therapists, and an interpreter pool.This is Treatment as Usual plus coordination and peer support.

Treatment:

Other: "coordinated and peer supported mental health care"

Behavioral: "standard psychotherapeutic care in the public healthcare system"

Standard psychotherapeutic care"

Other group

Description:

Participants receive standard psychotherapeutic care in the public healthcare system. For participants in this group no additional organisational support is available. This is Treatment as Usual.

Treatment:

Behavioral: "standard psychotherapeutic care in the public healthcare system"