Ukraine’s displaced people in the EU: Reach out, Implement, Scale-up and Evaluate interventions promoting mental wellbeing

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, millions of people have fled the country. The exposure to war-related traumatic experiences puts refugees at high risk of developing mental health problems and imposes major challenges on health care systems of host countries. U-RISE aims to improve the mental wellbeing of the displaced people of Ukraine by building sustainable capacity for the implementation of scalable, evidence-based mental health interventions adapted to the specific and diverse needs of refugees affected by the war.

Objectives are to 1) mobilize and reinforce a European network of Ukrainian and Russian-speaking mental health professionals to exchange practices, experiences and knowledge, and to promote synergy with international agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders; 2) build capacity to enable people, communities and organizations to implement evidence-based, face-to-face psychological interventions in Slovakia, Poland and Romania and m-health interventions across the continent; and 3) develop plans for sustainable scale-up and transfer across the EU.

We will disseminate training materials, taking into account the local context and health systems, to provide the necessary local conditions for implementing and up-scaling. We will train trainers and NGOs who will implement scalable WHO stepped care programmes (SH+/PM+) in 3 EU regions, and disseminate promising m-health interventions. Through networking activities, we will develop a roadmap of mental health services to accelerate referral pathways for those in need of more intensive mental health services.

U-RISE builds on successful partnerships complemented by key grassroots organizations. Together, by implementing a stepped care model with personalized components in parallel with widespread capacity building and a sound strategy for sustainability, U-RISE is in a unique position to enforce a sizeable, lasting impact on the mitigation of mental health problems among the displaced people of Ukraine.