Mental Health Training Programs for Non-Health Professionals and Volunteers Working with Asylum Seekers and Refugees: A Scoping Review Protocol

The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide is increasing. It is an imperative challenge to provide mental health training for non-health professionals and volunteers who work with those vulnerable populations. The objective is to identify mental health training programs for non-health professionals and volunteers, without mental health training, to work with asylum seekers or refugees in any context. Literature about mental health training programs for adults, non-health professionals and volunteers without mental health training, working, or who have worked, or will work, with asylum seekers or refugees will be considered. Literature published in English, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, and French will be considered. Literature reporting training programs exclusively for professionals or volunteers in the health or mental health domains will be excluded. The following electronic databases will be searched: MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection, SCOPUS, ERIC, RCAAP, and OPEN GREY. Other sites to be searched: ClinicalTrials, UNHCR, IOM, WHO, Save the Children, IMISCOE, and IFRC. The screening process will entail two steps carried out by two independent reviewers: firstly, screening by title and abstract, and secondarily, by full text. Data will describe the literature according to the review research questions that were defined following the PPC mnemonic, and presented graphically with a narrative.