Identifying research priorities for psychosocial support programs in humanitarian settings

Background.Given the range and reach of psychosocial support (PSS) interventions in humanitarian settings, within thecontinuum of mental health and psychosocial support services, evaluation of their impact is critical. Understandingstakeholders’perspectives on which PSS interventions of unknown effectiveness warrant rigorous evaluation is essentialto identify research priorities. This project aimed to facilitate a process with stakeholders to reach consensus on PSSinterventions that are of high priority for further research based on existing evidence and stakeholders’opinions.

Methods.Interviews with 109 stakeholders working on PSS programming in humanitarian settings served as the foun-dation for two in-person regional meetings and four webinars. Nominal Group Technique (NGT) was used to develop apriority PSS program list. The topfive priorities from each meeting were combined for afinal online survey distributedglobally.

Results.Seventy participants across six meetings contributed to the prioritization process. Eighty-seven individualscompleted thefinal online survey.‘Community based PSS’was the top-ranked research priority, followed by PSS inte-grated into basic services, providing PSS to caregivers to improve child wellbeing, PSS-focused gender-based violenceprogramming, and classroom-based PSS interventions.

Conclusions.NGT and online surveys were effective methods to engage stakeholders in a priority setting exercise todevelopment a research agenda. Information from this stage of the project will be combined withfindings from aconcurrent systematic review to form the base of a second phase of work, which will include the development andimplementation of a research strategy to strengthen the evidence base for those prioritized interventions.