This toolkit is a compilation of a range of several practice guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in humanitarian contexts, to enable easy access to key multi-lingual resources.

Marcio Gagliato

Emergency

General Technical Guidelines and Resources: MHPSS and non MHPSS

General Technical Guidelines and Resources

The aim of the handbook is to improve the quality of humanitarian response in situations of disaster and conflict, and to enhance the accountability of the humanitarian system to disaster-affected people. It is the product of the collective experience of many people and agencies. Started in the late 1990’s as an initiative of a group of humanitarian NGOs and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the Sphere standards are widely considered the minimum standards in humanitarian response. 

The Sphere handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response

Humanitarian Response in General

Coordinating relief efforts entails minimizing the duplication of humanitarian services, whether by filling gaps or preventing overlap, and ensuring various organizations are synchronized to work together to achieve a common objective, thereby enabling a more coherent, effective, and efficient response. In relation to MHPSS coordination mechanisms, please refer to IASC MHPSS Guidelines action sheet 1.1 (page 33-37), and the IASC MHPSS Reference Group at mhpss.refgroup@gmail.com

Establishing Coordination of Intersectoral Mental Health and Psychosocial Support

Examples of MHPSS Task-Force, Coordination or Working Group for different contexts.

Examples of Terms of Reference for MHPSS Coordination, Task Force or Working Groups in Emergencies

The humanitarian programme cycle (HPC) is a coordinated series of actions undertaken to help prepare for, manage and deliver humanitarian response. It consists of five elements coordinated in a seamless manner, with one step logically building on the previous and leading to the next. Successful implementation of the humanitarian programme cycle is dependent on effective emergency preparedness, effective coordination with national/local authorities and humanitarian actors, and information management.

The Implementation of Humanitarian Programme Cycle Version 2.0

This document provides practical, step-by-step guidance on how to organise the collaboration among the several stakeholders to prepare joint inter-sectorial needs analysis, including for the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and response plans and updates, including the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). This guide complements the IASC Humanitarian Programme Cycle.


Step-by-Step Practical Guide for Humanitarian Needs Overviews, Humanitarian Response Plans and Updates

MHPSS Coordination in Emergencies

**The cluster coordination mechanism is one of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Transformative Agenda Protocols. This document outlines the basic elements of cluster coordination and intends to serve as a reference guide for field practitioners to help facilitate their work and improve humanitarian outcomes:**

The reference module includes eight sections:

- Cluster and Sector Coordination
- Cluster Activation
- Cluster Functions
- The Role of Clusters in Preparedness
- Cluster Management Arrangements
- Sharing Leadership
- Minimum Commitments for Participation in Clusters
- Inter-Cluster Coordination, Sub-National Coordination, Monitoring Cluster Coordination

Cluster Coordination Reference Module

This Health cluster guide highlights key principles of humanitarian health action and how coordination and joint efforts among health and other sector actors working in partnership can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of health interventions and promote better health outcomes. It draws on Inter-Agency Standing Committee and other documents but also includes lessons from field experience. Although addressed to health cluster lead agencies, coordinators and partners, the guidance is equally valid for coordinators and members of health sector groups that seek to achieve effective health action in countries where the cluster approach has not been formally adopted. The guide should be useful in different humanitarian crisis contexts, including sudden onset and slow onset crises and protracted emergencies. It does not address all the specificities of the different contexts.

Health Cluster Guide: A Practical Handbook 

This handbook is a quick-reference tool that provides practical, field-level guidance to establish and maintain a GBV sub-cluster in a humanitarian emergency. It provides the foundations for coordination. More in-depth information can be pursued through resources referenced in this handbook.

Handbook for Coordinating GBV Interventions in Humanitarian Settings 

This Handbook is designed for situations where the international community is formally engaged with the humanitarian response and where the cluster system has been activated. The Handbook may, however, also be useful for contexts where there is no cluster approach. Although the Handbook is primarily addressed to child protection coordination teams, which may include coordinators, co-leads and information managers, the guidance is equally valid for all members of the child protection coordination group, including national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government representatives and other members, who seek to achieve an effective and coordinated response.

Child Protection in Emergencies: Coordination Handbook 

This framework specifically supports collaboration and coordination between Education and Child Protection cluster coordination teams. It provides steps to strengthen collaboration through the humanitarian project cycle. For each phase it outlines the objective of collaboration, three different levels of potential collaboration, key steps including minimum suggested actions, promising practice examples from different countries, and further tools and resources to support collaboration. It aims to enhance the quality, coverage and accountability of the humanitarian response, and reach more children in need.

Education in Emergencies - Child Protection Collaboration Framework V.1 

The Handbook is a guide to the normative framework for humanitarian action and the operational approaches, coordination structures, and available tools and services that facilitate the mobilization of humanitarian assistance.

The Handbook has a particular focus on the roles and responsibilities of the UN Resident Coordinator (RC) and the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) in leading and coordinating inter-agency humanitarian action in support of the host Government and local actors, and the skills, competencies and qualities of an effective hu- manitarian leader.

It is not a prescriptive guide. The approaches to humanitarian action (and levels of priority) will differ according to the context and the type of emergency.

It can be used to support decision-making in a range of crises; help identify the international technical expertise available prior to and at the onset of an emergency; facilitate partnerships among humanitarian organizations, national Governments and local actors; and plan and better prepare for humanitarian response. The Handbook is not intended to be read from cover to cover, but as a reference with easy access to guidance on particular topics and links for further reading.


Leadership in Humanitarian Action: Handbook for the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator 

Cluster Coordination Mechanism in Emergencies

This document is endorsed by more than 35 organizations involved in humanitarian assistance. It provides essential guidance for multi-sector responses to protect and improve people’s mental health and psychosocial well-being in the midst of an emergency, offering an overall framework for MHPSS integration, activities and services in humanitarian settings across different sectors such as health, protection and education. The guidelines call for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support services and activities to be implemented in a way that is coordinated, evidence-based, participatory, integrated, avoids harm and builds on existing resources and capacities, and to organizing a multi-layered system of complementary supports that meets the needs of different groups. 

 Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings

This accompanies the IASC MHPSS Guidelines, and is useful to use when time is short, or in facilitating a brief introductory training on the IASC MHPSS guidelines

Checklist for Field Use of IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings

IASC MHPSS Guidelines

Based on the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (IASC, 2007), this document gives an overview of essential knowledge that humanitarian health actors should have about MHPSS in humanitarian emergencies.

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Humanitarian Emergencies: What Should Humanitarian Health Actors Know?

Based on the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (2007), this document gives an overview of essential knowledge that protection programme managers should know about MHPSS in humanitarian emergencies. 

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Humanitarian Emergencies: What Should Protection Programme Managers Know? 

Based on the Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (IASC, 2007), this document provides an overview of essential knowledge that humanitarian actors within the CCCM cluster/sector should have about MHPSS in humanitarian emergencies.

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings, What Should Camp Coordination and Camp Manager Actors Know?

MHPSS Guidelines for Non-MHPSS Actors

Assessment resources, tools, and examples; mapping tools

Assessment and Mapping Guides

The Multi-Cluster/Sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) is designed to identify strategic humanitarian priorities during the first weeks following an emergency.
MIRA should be carried out under the auspices of the Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator (while the primary responsibility for coordinating humanitarian assistance rests with national authorities, if international humanitarian assistance is required a Humanitarian Coordinator-HC or Resident Coordinator-RC is responsible for leading and coordinating the efforts of humanitarian organizations (both UN and non-UN)) and wherever possible, led by the government.
MIRA is not specifically designed for MHPSS, but it does provide important information on the needs perceived by the affected community. It consists of:

- Secondary data analysis (SDA) to determine the extent of the disaster and the number of affected people and to sketch out the strategic humanitarian priorities.
- Community level assessment (CLA)
- The MIRA Framework to align intra- and inter-sectoral information and to
- support humanitarian actors reach a common understanding on strategic
- humanitarian priorities.
- The assessment normally comes with 2 products:
- A Preliminary Scenario Definition, is issued 72 hours after the disaster’s
- onset
- A MIRA Report, released after 2 weeks.

Multi-Cluster/Sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA)

General and Cross-Sectoral Assessment 

The purpose of this document is to provide agencies with a guide with three tools containing key assessment questions that are of common relevance to all actors involved in MHPSS independent of the phase of the emergency. This guide will be useful for rapid assessments of MHPSS issues in humanitarian emergencies across sectors.

IASC Reference Group Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Assessment Guide

This document provides an approach and a toolkit to help those designing and assessing mental health and psychosocial needs and resources in major humanitarian crises. It offers an approach that should help assessors review information that is already available and only collect new data that will be of practical use. 

Assessing Mental Health and Psychosocial Needs and Resources: Toolkit for Humanitarian Setting

These further reading and examples of application are based on Sierra Leone, Serbia and Nepal.

 Rapid Assessment of Alcohol and Other Substance Use in Conflict-affected and Displaced Populations: A Field Guide

This guide provides standards and directions on how to carry out rapid needs assessment for Psychosocial Support (PSS) and Violence Prevention (VP) initiatives including child protection and sexual and gender-based violence. In particular, this rapid assessment tool is designed to help gather data in an efficient and effective way to help inform integration of PSS and VP issues, as minimum standards, into the broader disaster management action plans in response to an emergency.

Rapid Assessment Guide for Psychosocial Support and Violence Prevention in Emergencies and Recovery 

Guidance on MHPSS Assessments

The IASC Reference group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support 4Ws tool is developed to map MHPSS activities in humanitarian settings across sectors. It is envisioned that this tool will be used by groups with MHPSS coordination responsibilities in emergencies with numerous MHPSS actors. The tool exists of 2 parts:
(a) A manual, which describes how to collect the data.
(b) A 4Ws Data Collection Spreadsheet application (in Excel).

Who is Where, When, Doing What (4Ws) in Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS): Manual with Activity Codes

Examples of application and data collection from Libya, Jordan, Bangladesh and 4Ws templates.

Examples of Application and Data Collection

MHPSS Mapping Tools

The referral form is intended to be used by humanitarian organisations working with persons with MHPSS problems and is designed to facilitate referrals between and within all four levels of the IASC MHPSS Intervention pyramid.
Case Managers and Community Workers may find the tool of particular use in their work with individual clients and their families.

Inter-Agency Referral Guidance Note for MHPSS

Program Implementation: includes core packages/resources for different areas of intervention.

Programme Implementation

This guide covers psychological first aid which involves humane, supportive and practical help to fellow human beings suffering serious crisis events. It is written for people in a position to help others who have experienced an extremely distressing event. It gives a framework for supporting people in ways that respect their dignity, culture and abilities. Despite its name, psychological first aid covers both social and psychological support.

Psychological First Aid - Guide for Field Workers 

The manual to facilitate training in psychological first aid with a focus on children. The training programme develops skills for providing physical and emotional comfort by modelling calmness and enables a constructive format through active listening that allows children in distress to voice their concerns and needs. It also helps to connect children in distress to practical assistance through referral networks and information on positive coping strategies. This material also covers support to caregivers. Available in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.

Psychological First Aid Training Manual for Child Practitioners

Commissioned and supported by Church of Sweden
Peer reviewed by members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings

Psychological First Aid: Five Year Retrospective (2011-2016)

This guide focuses on psychological first aid, which involves humane, supportive and practical help to fellow human beings suffering serious crisis events. It is written for people who can help others experiencing an extremely distressing event.

This guide is an adaptation of the Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers. It has been adapted to better respond to the challenges of Ebola virus disease outbreaks. Ebola poses specific problems for affected people (e.g., stigmatization, isolation, fear, and possible abandonment), their caregivers and responders (e.g., safety, access to updated information).

Psychological First Aid During Ebola Virus Disease Outbreaks

The PFA II, Dealing with traumatic responses in children manual provides guidance for staff working with children who are severely affected psychologically by acute crisis. It is not a clinical tool and does not in itself qualify staff to engage in clinical interventions. This tool lays the foundation for providing PFA as a basic psychological support. However, in some situations, it appears that methods such as comfort and stabilization are not sufficient. PFA II is supplementary to the basic PFA training. It provides advice for non-psychologists, based on field experience, and research. It provides advice to staff dealing directly with children who are showing concerning behaviours.

Psychological First Aid for Children II: Dealing With Traumatic Responses in Children

The I Support My Friends resource kit has been developed to give facilitators a comprehensive package of tools and resources to best equip children and adolescents in safe and effective peer support, together with adult mentors. It provides guidance and tools for preparing, designing, and implementing trainings with children and adolescents in how to support a friend in distress. The resource kit also includes guidance for appropriate adult supervision to ensure the physical and emotional safety of child and adolescent helpers and the friends they support.

The resource kit is comprised of:

1. Theory and Implementation Guide: Presents an overview of key concepts and the theoretical foundation of I Support My Friends. It describes the ethical considerations and child-safeguarding actions that need to be in place to protect children’s best interests and their physical and emotional safety. It also outlines the roles and responsibilities and expected skills and competencies of trusted adults who mentor child and adolescent peer supporters. 

2. Training Manual: Outlines a three-day, step-by-step training in I Support My Friends, including case studies, stories and a list of required materials. The manual includes tools to support the preparation and implementation of the training. Some of the tools correspond to worksheets that participants will use during the training (these are marked with a footnote). 

3. Participants Workbook: Contains the worksheets to be used by participants in the training. Each participant should receive their own workbook, which contains information, activities and space for notes and drawings. 

4. Manual for Training of Facilitators and Focal Points: This is in progress currently and will include the materials needed to build the capacity of the adult facilitators and Focal Point(s) who will implement the training for children and adolescents. Once field tested, the package will include a training manual, agenda, PowerPoint slides and other guiding materials.

I Support My Friends Resource Kit

Psychological First Aid Guides

This report presents the findings using an integrated psychological and anthropological framework that is instrumental in understanding MHPSS needs, and how to devise culturally-appropriate MHPSS interventions in Ebola-affected areas.

MHPSS in Guinea-Conakry – A Literature Review

This report provides guidance to MHPSS staff regarding counselling, psychotheraphy, and/or psychiatric treatment for Syrians living in the context of armed conflict. It discusses the mental health and psychological well being of the vulnerable, including children.

This report aims to provide information on the sociocultural background of the Syrian population as well as cultural aspects of mental health and psychosocial wellbeing relevant to care and support. It is based on an extensive review of the available literature on MHPSS, within the context of the current armed conflict in Syria.



Culture, Context and the Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing of Syrians - A Review for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Staff Working with Syrians Affected by Armed Conflict

The desk review includes useful background information on Ecuador and the effects of the earthquake, information on how mental health and psychosocial support is understood and perceived by different population groups within the country (before and after the earthquake), known prevalence rates for certain mental health disorders, ideas for MHPSS programming related to the earthquake and importantly also programming ideas for the Zika virus outbreak response too.

Ecuador Earthquake - Desk Review of Existing Information with Relevance to MHPSS

This desk review describes mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in Congolese survivors of gender-based violence with a focus on refugees and intimate partner violence.

Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing in Congolese Refugee Survivors of Gender- Based Violence: A Desk Review

The main aim of the desk review was to summarize existing information with regard to mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in Nepal. 

Nepal Earthquakes 2015: Desk Review of Existing Information with Relevance to MHPSS

This paper reviews and summarizes the available literature on Haitian mental health and mental health services. This review was conducted in light of the Haitian earthquake in January 2010.
 
The first part of the review describes historical, economic, sociological and anthropological factors essential to a basic understanding of Haiti and its people. This includes discussion of demography, family structure, Haitian economics and religion. The second part of the review focuses on mental health and mental health services. This includes a review of factors such as basic epidemiology of mental illness, common beliefs about mental illness, explanatory models, idioms of distress, help-seeking behavior, configuration of mental health services and the relationship between religion and mental health.

Culture and Mental Health in Haiti: A Literature Review

This review highlights the importance of understanding the key sociocultural aspects of mental health and wellbeing to assist humanitarian agencies, government, and non-government organizations in providing effective culturally informed services to the Rohingya. An overarching aim in providing this information is to encourage a consistent and coordinated multi-sectoral approach to address the mental health needs of the Rohingya.

Culture, Context and Mental Health of Rohingya Refugees: A Review for Staff in Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Programmes for Rohingya Refugees

MHPSS Cultural Adaptation and Desk Review

This guidance has been developed to provide practical support to those involved in planning humanitarian programming who seek to be more sensitive to the faith perspectives and resources of the communities within which they are working. It focuses particularly on the programming area of MHPSS, but in a manner that seeks to provide pointers for more faith sensitive humanitarian programming.

A Faith-Sensitive Approach in Humanitarian Response: Guidance on Mental Health and Psychosocial Programming

A Faith-Sensitive Approach in Humanitarian Response 

The mhGAP Humanitarian Intervention Guide contains first-line management recommendations
for mental, neurological and substance use conditions for non-specialist health-care providers in humanitarian emergencies where access to specialists and treatment options is limited. It also specifically focuses upon Mental Health conditions arising in humanitarian emergencies.

For planning a mental health response in primary health care (PHC), please refer to Tool 5: Checklist for integrating mental health in PHC in humanitarian settings (page 47-52) in the UNHCR/WHO Assessing Mental Health and Psychosocial Needs and Resources Toolkit for Humanitarian Settings.

Clinical Management of Mental, Neurological and Substance Use Conditions in Humanitarian Emergencies - mhGAP Humanitarian Intervention Guide (mhGAP-HIG)

The toolkit aims to support the understanding and implementation of integrated mental health programs in humanitarian settings; it provides a framework for essential steps and components, with associated key guidance and resources, that strengthen the integration process, and is primarily intended for (1) implementing agencies, but may also be useful for (2) donors, and (3) government actors). Users can access the three steps & three cross cutting components relevant to current program needs, or stages of programming. The toolkit is available in English.
mhGAP Humanitarian Intervention Guide

Mental Health into General Healthcare in Humanitarian Settings

The ToHP training aims to ensure that health-care providers attain core competencies in delivering care for people with mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) conditions. In the ToHP training manual, 12 core competencies have been developed, which cover all areas needed to assess and manage each priority MNS condition. The manual is available in English and there are videos also available.

Training of Health-Care Providers Training Manual (ToHP) for mhGAP-IG

This new mhGAP module on Conditions Specifically Related to Stress contains assessment and management advice related to acute stress, post-traumatic stress and grief in non-specialized health settings.

It is an annex to the mhGAP Intervention Guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings (WHO, 2010).

Assessment Management of Conditions Specifically Related to Stress

Building back better: sustainable mental health care after emergencies raises awareness about this type of opportunity, and describes how this was achieved in 10 diverse emergency-affected areas. Lessons learnt and key overlapping practices emerging from these experiences are summarized. 

Building Back Better: Sustainable Mental Health Care After Emergencies

The manual describes a scalable psychological intervention called Problem Management Plus (PM+) for adults impaired by distress in communities who are exposed to adversity. Aspects of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) have been changed to make them feasible in communities that do not have many specialists. To ensure maximum use, the intervention is developed in such a way that it can help people with depression, anxiety and stress, whether or not exposure to adversity has caused these problems. It can be applied to improve aspects of mental health and psychosocial well-being no matter how severe people’s problems are.

 Problem Management Plus (PM+)

The Thinking Health manual outlines an evidence-based approach describing how community health workers can reduce prenatal depression through evidence-based cognitive-behavioural techniques recommended by the mhGAP programme.

Thinking Healthy: A Manual for Psychosocial Management of Perinatal Depression

This manual modifies Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for depression for use in 8-session groups and involves a simplified format for facilitators who may not have received previous training in mental health. The current guide uses the term Group Interpersonal Therapy (Group IPT) to aid dissemination and to clarify that IPT may be used by supervised non- specialists, including in countries where “psychotherapy” is a regulated term. 


Group Interpersonal Therapy for Depression

Essential medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of a population. They are selected with due regard to disease prevalence and public health relevance, evidence of efficacy and safety and comparative cost-effectiveness. They are intended to be available in functioning health systems at all times, in appropriate dosage forms, of assured quality and at prices individuals and health systems can afford.

WHO Model List of Essential Medicines

This a health information system template to report mental illness during an emergency.

 Health Information System: Emergency Mental Illness Report

Self-Help Plus (SH+) has been developed as a five-session, group-based stress management course. It is suitable for all settings where there are populations affected by adversity. It can be used to help reduce psychological distress in adults, regardless of whether they have a diagnosable mental health condition or not and has been shown to prevent the onset of mental disorders in adults. SH+ uses pre-recorded audio and an illustrated guide to teach stress management skills. This innovative format makes it possible for supervised non-specialists to complete a short training on SH+ and then deliver it to large groups of people (e.g. up to approximately 30 at a time). SH+ is one of a number of evidence-based scalable psychological interventions published by WHO and can be offered alongside other mental health interventions or community programming. This manual is for facilitators, supervisors and organizations implementing SH+. When we refer to “you” in the manual, we are addressing facilitators.

Self Help Plus (SH+): A group-based stress management course for adults 

With the unprecedented increase in humanitarian emergencies in recent years, growing numbers of people are facing adverse living conditions and are at risk of developing mental health problems. The defining feature of this manual – which was developed to help one individual at a time - is that it was designed to support adults impaired by distress, regardless of the specific mental health problem they are experiencing. This means that more people can be helped through a single brief psychosocial intervention. Secondly, it comprises evidence-based strategies adapted so that they can be delivered by supervised non-specialist providers after brief training. This is critical if we want to bridge the gap between mental health problems and access to effective care. In many settings where mental distress is high due to adversity there is a lack of psychosocial support, including a lack of mental health professionals.
Group PM+ is designed for adults impaired by psychological distress and can be delivered by non-specialist professionals following brief training and with ongoing supervision. It draws on the same therapeutic strategies as the individual version of PM+ and is delivered over five two-hour sessions. The effectiveness and feasibility of Group PM+ has been shown through randomized controlled trials conducted in Pakistan and Nepal.
With this manual, and following cultural adaptation, governments and civil society will be better equipped to respond to and manage common mental health problems for adults affected by adversity.


Group Problem Management Plus (Group PM+): group psychological help for adults impaired by distress in communities exposed to adversity (generic field-trial version 1.0)

Mental Health Integration into Primary Health Care

UNICEF’s operational framework aims to help develop programmes across the social ecological model and the mental health continuum of prevention, promotion and treatment to improve the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of children, adolescents and their caregivers globally. The strategies and approaches included in the framework will help in accelerating actions for children’s, adolescents’ and caregivers’ mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in national and regional development strategies. The framework can be used in development contexts, humanitarian contexts and within the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.  This operational framework emphasizes engaging actors in the health, social welfare and child protection and education sectors at all levels of society to design, implement and evaluate MHPSS strategies that are locally relevant, comprehensive and sustainable.

 Global Multisectoral Operational Framework for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support of Children, Adolescents and Caregivers Across Settings [Field Demonstration version]

The toolkit provides a set of materials to assist managers and facilitators/animators in setting up and implementing quality CFS. These resources have at their core the protection of children from harm; the promotion of psychosocial well-being; and the engagement of community and caregiver capacities.

Operational Guidance for Child Friendly Spaces in Humanitarian Settings

This document provides practical guidance to child protection and MHPSS practitioners for monitoring and evaluating child friendly spaces. It presents tools for planning and implementing monitoring and evaluation of CFS. For each tool, the objectives are explained, along with insights and lessons on the usefulness of the tool.

Evaluation of Child Friendly Spaces - Tools and Guidance for Monitoring and Evaluating Child Friendly Spaces

A training package to be delivered to child workers with no experience running a child safe space, enabling them to establish a quality program in an emergency setting. Participants learn the theory behind CFSs, how to set up and run them, and what kind of resources are needed to support the psychosocial wellbeing and protection of children in emergencies.

Inter-Agency Child Protection Working Group: Training Package on Child Friendly Spaces

The Baby Friendly Spaces (BFS) is a model of intervention for a holistic program to support pregnant, lactating women and their children in emergency situations.

Baby Friendly Spaces 

Examples of Child Friendly Spaces in DRC, Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Nepal and Uganda.

Examples from the Field - Child Friendly Spaces 

The compendium provides valuable information about available resources, including guidelines, training manuals and tools. The description of each resource includes a detailed overview of its features, and information about how to access documentation, training or publications supporting each resource. The compendium is intended to be used as a reference document to identify available resources for implementing CB-MHPSS in humanitarian settings. The compendium does not describe how to implement particular interventions, but rather provides resources to inspire program development across a broad spectrum of approaches within the frame of the IASC Guidelines for MHPSS in Emergencies, and a map to point users to additional sources of information.

A Compendium of Resources: Community-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support

Community Mobilisation and Support

The Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPMS) are intended to:
1. Establish common principles amongst those working in child protection, and to strengthen coordination between them.
2. Improve the quality of child protection programming, and its impact for children. Improve accountability within child protection work
3. Provide a synthesis of good practice and learning to date
4. Enable better advocacy and communication on child protection risks, needs and responses.

The Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action 2019

This set of comprehensive guidelines outlines a framework and set of principles intended to ensure that the rights and needs of separated children are effectively addressed. The guidelines aim to promote and support preparedness, coordination and good practice based on lessons learnt. The document addresses all aspect of an emergency from preventing separations, to family tracing and reunification through to long-term solutions and encourages the pooling of complementary skills and expertise.

Inter-Agency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and Separated Children

This book is designed to facilitate interagency planning and implementation of alternative care and related services for children separated from or unable to live with their families during and after an emergency.

Alternative Care in Emergencies Toolkit 2013

The contextualization guidance defines the key aspects of contextualisation for CAAFAG MHPSS programmes and highlights key steps for contextualizing the MHPSS for CAAFAG Operational Framework. The guidance also offers information, tools, and illustrative case studies to inform the adaptation of components of the MHPSS for CAAFAG Operational Framework to cultures, contexts, and situation.

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups Programmes - Field Test Version

This guide has developed recommendations based on interviews with specialists within the various sectors. It has been revised by other independent specialists and validated by a group of child protection coordinators and sector specialists. 

Working with Other Sectors to Enhance Outcomes of MHPSS Elements of Child Protection An Introductory Guide for Child Protection Practitioners - Field Test v.1 

This rapid evidence assessment (REA) aimed to answer three questions: What interventions have been effective in ensuring the protection of children on the move? What are the implementation factors that make these interventions effective or that hamper effectiveness (for example the context of the intervention, and specific design features such as who is targeted)? What kinds of social welfare and child protection systems are linked to effective interventions?. This report provides an assessment of the reviewed literature and its key findings, and identifies gaps.

What Works to Protect Children On The Move 

The purpose of the field handbook is to provide operational guidance for child protection staff and all other actors working on prevention and response to family separation in emergencies. The handbook sets out to ensure that responses meet agreed inter-agency standards (where relevant), and are complementary. Moreover, it seeks to ensure that responses are appropriate to the particular situation of individual unaccompanied and separated children, and in their best interests, emphasizing the importance of working with affected communities, including children themselves, and building on their strengths and resilience.

Field Handbook on Unaccompanied and Separated Children 

Protection and Human Rights Standards

These guidelines provide practical guidance and effective tools for humanitarians and communities to coordinate, plan, implement, monitor and evaluate essential actions for the prevention and mitigation of gender-based violence, throughout all stages of emergency response, from preparedness to recovery. MHPSS is integrated throughout the guidelines.

Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action. Reducing risk, promoting resilience and aiding recovery

This training is a basic introduction to understanding sexual and gender-based violence in a psychosocial context. It is our hope that this training will provide staff and volunteers with the skills and confidence to better respond to the needs of people affected by SGBV.

Sexual and Gender Based Violence - A Two- Day Psychosocial Training

The resource package uses global standards on providing basic support and information to survivors of GBV without doing further harm. It is encouraged to adapt this resource to your local context with the support of a GBV specialist.

How to Support Survivors of Gender-Based Violence When GBV Actor is Not Available in Your Area – A Pocket Guide

These standards apply to GBV specialized programming in all phases of an emergency. The resource includes 16 Standards on GBV Guiding Principles, Staff Care, Women’s and Girls’ Participation and Empowerment, Psychosocial Support, GBV Case Management, Women’s and Girls’ Safe Spaces, Health Care for GBV survivors, Referral Systems, Safety and Risk Mitigation, Justice and Legal Aid, Dignity Kits, Cash and Voucher Assistance, Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods, Transforming Systems and Social Norms, Collection and Use of GBV Survivor Data, GBV Coordination, Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation. Key actions, guidance notes, links to additional resources and indicators are included for each standard area.

The Inter-Agency Minimum Standards for GBV in Emergencies Programming

This study seeks to improve understanding of the risks and types of sexual and gender-based violence faced by children who migrate on their own, as well as the unfortunate and widespread gaps in protection and assistance for these children. It looks closely at the situation in dangerous or remote locations – places that are fragile, conflict-ridden, underserved and hard to reach, where children may be particularly vulnerable. The study also identifies actions that are urgently needed, by governments and humanitarian organizations, to better protect and assist children migrating on their own and reduce the risk of sexual and gender-based violence, as called for in the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

 Alone and Unsafe: Children, Migration, and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

This handbook is a quick-reference tool that provides practical, field-level guidance to establish and maintain a GBV sub-cluster in a humanitarian emergency. It provides the foundations for coordination.


Handbook for Coordinating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Emergencies

Integrated MHPSS and GBV Programmes

Applicable to both IDP and refugee scenarios, the toolkit incorporates a wide range of relevant information on managing displaced populations living in communal settings (collective centres, spontaneous sites, established camps, etc.).

 Camp Management Toolkit

This document is for humanitarian actors within the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) cluster, at national and subnational levels, in countries facing emergencies and crises. This document provides an overview of essential knowledge that humanitarian actors within the CCCM cluster/sector should have about MHPSS in humanitarian emergencies

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings: What Should Camp Coordination and Camp Management Actos Know?

MHPSS in Camp Management and Camp Coordination

This brief guidance note seeks to provide advice on protecting and supporting the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in Europe. It describes key principles and appropriate interventions to guide all those who are designing and organizing emergency services and/ or providing direct assistance to the affected people.

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants on the Move in Europe 2015

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants on the Move

This document clarifies relevant terminologies and approaches relating to psychosocial well-being and social and emotional learning (SEL) in education in crisis affected contexts, and how psychosocial support (PSS) and social and emotional learning relate to one another

Psychosocial Support and Social and Emotional Learning for Children and Youth in Emergency Settings

This INEE Guidance Note encourages more intentional and consistent implementation of practical,
good quality psychosocial interventions on the education frontlines by teachers, education administrators, parents, counselors, peers, ministries, and other education personnel in three concrete ways:

- It clarifies the education sector’s importance in supporting the psychosocial wellbeing of children and youth;
- It provides educators with practical tips and advice about how to integrate PSS into formal and non- formal education efforts;
- It highlights linkages between PSS in education and other sectors

Guidance Note on Psychosocial Support Facilitating Psychosocial Wellbeing and Social and Emotional Learning

MHPSS and Education

The purpose of this review is to explore literature and the experiences of three organisations that are working with people with psychosocial disability living in low- and middle-income countries.

Inclusion of people with psychosocial disability in low and middle income contexts: A Literature and Practice Review

MHPSS and Persons with Disabilities

This toolkit assists practitioners in preparing and supporting volunteers for their work during and after disasters, conflicts and other crisis events. It contains practical tools and information on preparing for crises, communication and PFA, peer support and monitoring and evaluation.

Caring for Volunteers – A Psychosocial Support Toolkit

This evaluation reports on how well the United Nations High Commission for Refugees considers and provides for the well-being and mental health of persons of concern to the agency. Through a survey of UNHCR field staff, extensive literature and policy review, and key informant interviews with MHPSS experts from academic institutions, international agencies and non-governmental organizations, this review provides insight into how UNHCR’s current activities contribute towards improved mental health and psychosocial well-being of displaced persons and how UNHCR’s current policy frameworks relate to established practices and frameworks in the MHPSS field.

UNHCR'S MHPSS for Persons of Concern - Global Report

This training should be used to help practitioners recognize signs and symptoms of stress and to explore ways of reducing stress and providing peer support. This training session should be conducted for all practitioners, particularly field practitioners, and for practitioners working in the contexts of emergency, conflict-affected areas, and protracted crisis. Senior Management must ensure this training is prioritized. Facilitators should be considered neutral to the staff being trained.

Stress Management for Staff Training

The Guidelines for Good Practice are intended to help organizations define their own needs in relation to stress management and develop their own staff care system. The process will be different for each organization. National and international agencies, big and small organizations, will have to find the process and policies that work for them. The eight principles suggested in the Guidelines can be universally applied, but they will be implemented using indicators based on the specific context and culture of the organization. 

 Managing Stress in Humanitarian Workers: Guidelines for Good Practice

This is a summary of a 2-day working conference on “Staff care in fragile contexts: what works and what doesn’t?” that explores processes, barriers, and opportunities for staff care in line with global staff care principles, based on GIZ’s regional program “Psychosocial Support for Syrian and Iraqi Refugees and IDPs”.

Conference Report Conference on Staff Care in Fragile Contexts: What Works and What Doesn’t?

These guidelines have recommendations on staff care that have emerged on how staff health, wellbeing & safety, at all levels of an organization, significantly impacts on the effectiveness of humanitarian, development and mission work where it matters most - in the field.

Interhealth Worldwide – Staff Care Guidelines

The well-being guide: reduce stress, recharge and build inner resilience is for individual self-care, and for peers and teams who work together. Each section can be tested or incorporated within regular meetings with a focus on caring for the carers. The exercises in this guide are for all humanitarian staff, volunteers and for recipients of mental health and psychosocial support services.

The Well-Being Guide: Reduce Stress, Recharge and Build Inner Resilience 

Staff Care and Support

This document provides guidance in the assessment, research, design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of MHPSS programmes in emergency settings. Although designed specifically for emergency contexts (including protracted crises), the framework may also be applicable for the transition phases from emergency to development (including disaster risk reduction initiatives). The framework assumes familiarity with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings and an understanding of programming in humanitarian relief and/or development. 
The content of the current publication, including the selection of tools and guidance for means of verification (MoV), was also developed by the IASC MHPSS RG.


 The Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings with Means of Verification: Version 2.0

This document provides guidance to ensure MHPSS research in emergencies benefits affected
people; design research to fill knowledge gaps in MHPSS theory and practice in emergencies; avoid bad practice, such as research without satisfactory consent of participants and to better understand how to manage ethical challenges in MHPSS research during emergencies.

Emergency Toolkit

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