Mental health assessments in refugees and asylum seekers: evaluation of a tablet-assisted screening software

Abstract

BackgroundMental health problems resulting from persecution and forced migration are very common among refugees and asylum seekers and evolve into a major public health challenge in hosting societies. Language barriers often prevent timely access to appropriate health care, leading to chronic trajectories and abortive social integration. Tools for multilingual screening and assessment could be of great benefit for this particularly vulnerable population as well as for policy makers. This study aimed at testing the reliability, feasibility and usability of the Multi-Adaptive Psychological Screening Software (MAPSS), a newly developed Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interview Software (ACASI) for touchscreen devices, for screening purposes in a clinical setting.MethodsIn a randomized cross-over design including both MAPSS and paper-pencil clinician-administered interviews, 30 treatment-seeking refugees completed clinical measures and a feasibility questionnaire to rate the user interface of MAPSS. Five professionals performed given tasks in MAPSS and completed usability questionnaires for the administration interface.ResultsResults showed no differences between the two assessment modalities with regard to symptom scores. The findings suggest good feasibility and usability of MAPSS in traumatized refugees. The administration via MAPSS was significantly shorter than the paper-pencil interview.ConclusionMAPSS may be a cost-effective, flexible and valid alternative to interpreter-based psychometric screening and assessment.

Changes in Post-migration Living Difficulties Predict Treatment Outcome in Traumatized Refugees

“…Written informed consent was obtained, with participants being informed they were free to withdraw from the study without influence on future treatment. Questionnaires were applied using a therapist-assisted computer-based assessment tool MAPSS [Multi-Adaptive Psychological Screening Software, ( 36 )]. In MAPSS, self-report questionnaires are presented on an electronic tablet in both written and auditory form in the respondent's mother tongue.…”

Utilization of Mobile Mental Health Services among Syrian Refugees and Other Vulnerable Arab Populations—A Systematic Review

“…However, the single randomized control trial included in the present study found a statistically significant reduction in post-traumatic stress syndrome symptoms in Arab patients from war-torn backgrounds [34]. Additionally, the remainder of the articles showed efficacy of the technologies as screening tools for this population [6,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. It is imperative that mMHealth innovations are compatible with local needs of intended adopters and implementing institutions.…”

“…Barriers discussed primarily included primarily cultural, financial, technical, infrastructural and data privacy limitations and lack of mental health awareness in the study populations. Results and key findings are tabulated in Table 3 [6,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. They preferred telepsychiatry in their mother tongue rather than interpreter-assisted care.…”

“…It is imperative that mMHealth innovations are compatible with local needs of intended adopters and implementing institutions. This is evidenced by the barriers identified in five of the articles including inadequate technological capacity, insufficient or lack of cultural adaptation and acceptance and poor credibility as barriers to mHealth implementation [28,29,31,34,35]. Given the extent of the current refugee crisis and the incidence and prevalence of mental health disorders among these vulnerable populations, it is imperative that further studies are conducted to evaluate the efficacy of this potentially groundbreaking technology.…”

Effectiveness of a peer-refugee delivered psychological intervention to reduce psychological distress among adult Syrian refugees in the Netherlands: study protocol

“…All questionnaires, except the exclusion instruments (the PM+ manual's suicidal thoughts interview and assessment tool for severe disorders) and the CSRI interview are self-administered on a tablet with audio functions (cf. Morina et al, 2017). Independent Arabicspeaking assessors with at least a degree-level will carry out the assessments.…”