Feasibility and acceptability of phone-delivered psychological therapy for refugee children and adolescents in a humanitarian setting

Refugee children are at high risk of mental health problems but face barriers to accessing mental health services, a problem exacerbated by a shortage of mental health professionals. Having trained lay counsellors deliver therapy via telephone could overcome these barriers. This is the first study to explore feasibility and acceptability of telephone-delivered therapy with refugee children in a humanitarian setting.

The study concludes that despite some challenges, telephone-delivered therapy for children shows promising evidence of feasibility and acceptability in a humanitarian context and has the potential to increase access to mental health services by hard-to-reach populations. Approaches to addressing challenges of telephone-delivered therapy are also discussed in this paper.