BePrepared App Toolkit

IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings

The IASC Guidelines is a key reference document for MHPSS in emergencies. It provides essential guidance for multi-sectoral essential minimum responses to protect and improve people’s mental health and psychosocial well-being in emergencies. It offers an overall framework for the integration of MHPSS activities and services in humanitarian settings across different sectors such as health, protection and education. As well as recommending essential minimum responses, it gives guidance on what should be included in a more comprehensive response for each sector.

My Hero is You Resource Collection

The storybook 'My Hero is You' is part of a resource kit that addresses the key topics of how children can protect themselves, their families and their friends from the coronavirus and how to manage difficult emotions when confronted with new and rapidly changing realities. It was developed for children all over the world affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through a comprehensive consultative process with over 1,700 children, parents, caregivers and teachers from around the world. The book “My Hero is You” should be read by a parent, caregiver or teacher alongside a child or a small group of children. It is not designed for children to read this book independently without the support of a parent, caregiver, or teacher. The resource kit contains: - A storybook for children My Hero is you: How kids can Hope with COVID-19 - The supplementary guide called “Actions for Heroes”, A Guide for heart-to-heart chats with Children to accompany the reading of My Hero is You, How kids can fight COVID-19! - My Hero is You 2021: How kids can hope with COVID-19 - Audio Files - My Hero is You 2020 - A short animated film, with input and oversight from the IASC Mental health and Psychosocial Support Reference Group, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO). The film aims to convey messages of hope, resilience, solidarity, and empowerment to children and their caregivers around the world.

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

Self-Help Plus (SH+) is WHO’s 5-session stress management course for large groups of up to 30 people. It is delivered by supervised, non-specialist facilitators who complete a short training course and use pre-recorded audio and an illustrated guide (Doing What Matters in Times of Stress) to teach stress management skills. The course is suitable for adults who experiences stress, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances. It has been shown to reduce psychological distress and prevent the onset of mental disorders. The format of SH+ makes it well-suited for use alongside other mental health interventions, as a first step in a stepped care programme, or as a community intervention delivered alongside broader community programming.

Basic Psychosocial Skills: A guide for COVID-19 responders

Basic psychosocial support skills are at the core of any MHPSS intervention. Such skills are also indispensable for many other relief providers involved in the COVID-19 response, whether they identify as an MHPSS provider or not. This illustrated guide, developed by the IASC Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Reference Group (MHPSS RG), aims at building basic psychosocial skills among all essential workers responding to COVID-19 in all sectors. The document is the result of two rounds of formal consultations and weekly calls among the 57 IASC MHPSS Result Group member organizations, including the Chairs of the MHPSS Technical Working Groups deployed in 22 humanitarian emergencies. Furthermore, around 200 COVID-19 survivors as well as COVID-19 emergency responders in 24 countries participated in a survey, a consultation and the piloting of the document.

IASC Reference Group Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Assessment Guide

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 Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) independent of the phase of the emergency. This guide will be useful for rapid assessments of MHPSS issues in humanitarian emergencies across sectors. The guide is designed for use by various humanitarian actors (governmental and non-governmental; local, national and global). It is based on the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (IASC, 2007).

Multi-Cluster/Sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA)

The Multi-Cluster/Sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) is a joint needs assessment tool that can be used in sudden onset emergencies, including IASC System-Wide Level 3 Emergency Responses (L3 Responses).

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

This resource provides an approach and a toolkit to help those designing and conducting an assessment of mental health and psychosocial needs and resources in major humanitarian crises. The document helps users to collect the necessary information to assist people affected by humanitarian crises more effectively.

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

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.

Building Back Better: Sustainable mental health care after emergencies

Emergencies, in spite of their tragic nature and adverse effects on mental health, are unparalleled opportunities to build better mental health systems for all people in need. This WHO publication shows how this was done in 10 diverse emergency-affected areas. This is important because mental health is crucial to the overall well-being, functioning, and resilience of individuals, societies, and countries recovering from emergencies.

Who is Where, When, Doing What (4Ws) in Mental Health and Psychosocial Support

This tool for is useful for the following: providing a big picture of the size and nature of the MHPSS response; identifying gaps in the MHPSS response to enable coordinated action; enabling referral by making information available about who is where, when, doing what; informing appeal processes; improving transparency and legitimacy of MHPSS through a common language and structured documentation; and improving possibilities for reviewing patterns of practice and for drawing lessons for future response.

IASC Handbook, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Coordination

The Handbook of MHPSS Coordination provides standard guidance on how to best to support well-coordinated and multisectoral MHPSS responses that are predictable, accountable, equitable, efficient and effective. This handbook outlines consensus-based guidance for members and facilitators of MHPSS TWGs and actors working at country level. It identifies the ingredients for effective coordination by building on good practices from past emergencies and provides tools and useful resources.

IASC Minimum Service Package Mental Health and Psychosocial Support

The Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Minimum Service Package (MHPSS MSP) is an intersectoral package that outlines a set of activities that are considered to be of the highest priority in meeting the needs of emergency-affected populations, based on existing guidelines, available evidence and expert consensus. Each activity comes with checklists of core and additional actions. The MSP is for humanitarian actors who plan, support, coordinate, implement and evaluate humanitarian activities within and across sectors. These include government actors, MHPSS Technical Working Groups (TWGs), national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society and other advocacy groups, Red Cross and Red Crescent networks, UN agencies, coordinators of sectors/clusters/AoRs and donors.

Community-based approaches to MHPSS: A guidance note

Community-based approaches to Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (CB MHPSS) in emergencies are based on the understanding that communities can be drivers for their own care and change and should be meaningfully involved in all stages of MHPSS responses. Emergency-affected people are first and foremost to be viewed as active participants in improving individual and collective well-being, rather than as passive recipients of services that are designed for them by others. Thus, using community-based MHPSS approaches facilitates families, groups and communities to support and care for others in ways that encourage recovery and resilience. These approaches also contribute to restoring and/or strengthening those collective structures and systems essential to daily life and well-being. An understanding of systems should inform community-based approaches to MHPSS programmes for both individuals and communities.

Community-based psychosocial support - Facilitator Manual

This resource aims at fostering the provision of quality and timely psychological first aid to people affected by the Ukraine crisis in impacted countries for facilitators. It can be used in other contexts as well.

Remote psychological first aid during COVID-19

Psychological first aid (PFA) is a method of helping people in distress so they feel calm and supported to cope better with their challenges. It is a way of assisting someone to manage their situation and make informed decisions. The basis of psychological first aid is caring about the person in distress and showing empathy. It involves paying attention to reactions, active listening and, if needed, practical assistance, such as problem solving, help to access basic needs or referring to further options for assistance. PFA helps normalize worry and other emotions, PFA also promotes healthy coping and provides feelings of safety, calming, and hope.

Psychological First Aid: Guide for field workers

This guide was developed in order to have widely agreed upon psychological first aid materials for use in low and middle income countries. The information we have given here is a model only. You will need to adapt it appropriately to the local context and the culture of the people you will help.

Talking about mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies

Information sheet on talking about MHPSS in emergencies.

Assessment (Video)