Development of specific training modules for health professionals, law enforcement officers and trainers, on migrants' and refugees' health, addressing communicable diseases and mental health problems

Context and Rationale

In light of the current international refugee situation, many European countries are developing policies and plans to better define their role in supporting migrants entering Europe. In line with the aims of the Europe 2020 strategy for fighting exclusion, the European Union has committed to improve access and appropriateness of health care services, health promotion and prevention for migrants.

Further to prior actions on Migration Health related to the preparedness and responsiveness of staff, the European Commission has committed funds for the development of specific training addressing communicable disease and mental health, within a tendered initiative to be implemented in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Norway, France, Malta, Serbia, Spain, Slovenia and Italy, and coordinated by Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER).

Objectives

The training that is to be developed and piloted under this programme is expected to enable frontline health, police and other professionals to develop key competences, which can support them in providing more appropriate health care to migrants and refugees.

Activities

Within the framework of MIG-H Training, the following activities will be carried out:

1. Review of migrants' mental health status and review regarding prospective risks for communicable diseases in migrants and refugees identifying common challenges to feed into the training programmes, with the aim of identifying and synthesizing the latest evidence from all EU Member States, as well as Iceland, Norway, Serbia and Moldova.

2. Development of training materials and review of existing programs with the aim of identifying current good practices, successes and challenges.

3. Preparation of training program tailored for the sessions on mental health of migrants and communicable diseases, and based on the results of the reviews conducted.

4. Training of trainers, pilot training programs and evaluation. The initial ToT workshop in Athens has the aim of presenting the training materials to the national trainers, discussing their relevance to the current situation, identifying the specific needs based on each country context and proposing how to adapt/adjust the training materials accordingly. This will be followed by an in country pilot of the training programme, including review and adaptation of the modules, selection of trainees in each country, and roll-out training sessions in collaboration with national authorities.

5. Dissemination of the results from the training programme through the compilation of the syllabus of the pilot trainings and the evaluation findings, the development of a PowerPoint presentation describing the main results and how they contribute to the overall objectives, the organization of a dissemination workshop and the drafting of a workshop dissemination report.

Mig-H Training in country pilot sessions for health professionals and law enforcement officers held on 14 May 2018, at the Academy for Disciplined Forces, Malta.

This project is funded by the European Commission's Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA).