Testing the effectiveness and acceptability of online supportive supervision for mental health practitioners in humanitarian settings: a study protocol for the caring for carers project

Ruth Wells; Ceren Acarturk; Muhammad Kamruzzaman Mozumder; Gülşah Kurt; Louis Klein; Salah Addin Lekkeh; Ammar Beetar; Sabiha Jahan; Fatema Almeamari; Md Omar Faruk; Michael McGrath; Syeda Fatema Alam; Mustafa Alokoud; Ranak Dewan; Ahmed El Vecih; Hafsa El-Dardery; Dusan Hadzi-Pavlovic; Hanan Hammadi; Mounir Al Shekh Hamoud; M Tasdik Hasan; Rohina Joshi; Sowmic Kothaa; Fauzia Kabir Chowdhury Lamia; Chiara Mastrogiovanni; Hussam Najjar; Shaun Nemorin; Kathryn Nicholson-Perry; Tahmina Sarker Prokrity; Rania Said Yousef; Mamoun Tawakol; Ersin Uygun; Wael Yasaki; Scarlett Wong; Ariel Zarate; Zachary Steel; Simon Rosenbaum

doi:10.1186/s12888-023-05246-1

Testing the effectiveness and acceptability of online supportive supervision for mental health practitioners in humanitarian settings: a study protocol for the caring for carers project

BMC Psychiatry. 2023 Nov 28;23(1):884. doi: 10.1186/s12888-023-05246-1.

Authors

Ruth Wells¹, Ceren Acarturk², Muhammad Kamruzzaman Mozumder³, Gülşah Kurt⁴, Louis Klein⁴, Salah Addin Lekkeh⁵, Ammar Beetar⁵, Sabiha Jahan³, Fatema Almeamari², Md Omar Faruk³, Michael McGrath⁴, Syeda Fatema Alam³, Mustafa Alokoud⁵, Ranak Dewan³, Ahmed El Vecih⁵, Hafsa El-Dardery², Dusan Hadzi-Pavlovic⁴, Hanan Hammadi⁵, Mounir Al Shekh Hamoud⁵, M Tasdik Hasan⁶, Rohina Joshi⁷, Sowmic Kothaa³, Fauzia Kabir Chowdhury Lamia³, Chiara Mastrogiovanni⁴, Hussam Najjar⁵, Shaun Nemorin⁸, Kathryn Nicholson-Perry⁹, Tahmina Sarker Prokrity³, Rania Said Yousef⁵, Mamoun Tawakol², Ersin Uygun¹⁰, Wael Yasaki⁵, Scarlett Wong⁷, Ariel Zarate¹¹, Zachary Steel⁴, Simon Rosenbaum⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Clinical Medicine, Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. ruth.wells@unsw.edu.au.
² Department of Psychology, Koc University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
³ Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁴ School of Clinical Medicine, Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
⁵ Hope Revival Organization, Gaziantep, Türkiye.
⁶ Action Lab, Department of Human Centred Computing, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁷ School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
⁸ New South Wales Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS), Sydney, Australia.
⁹ Discipline of Psychological Science, Australian College of Applied Psychology, Sydney, Australia.
¹⁰ Trauma and Disaster Mental Health, Bilgi University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
¹¹ Suicide Prevention Subgroup, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

Abstract

Background: Local humanitarian workers in low and middle-income countries must often contend with potentially morally injurious situations, often with limited resources. This creates barriers to providing sustainable mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to displaced individuals. Clinical supervision is an often neglected part of ensuring high-quality, sustainable care. The Caring for Carers (C4C) project aims to test the effectiveness and acceptability of online group-based supportive supervision on the well-being of MHPSS practitioners, as well as service-user-reported service satisfaction and quality when working with displaced communities in Türkiye, Syria, and Bangladesh. This protocol paper describes the aim, design, and methodology of the C4C project.

Method: A quasi-experimental, mixed-method, community-based participatory research study will be conducted to test the effectiveness of online group-based supportive clinical supervision provided to 50 Syrian and 50 Bangladeshi MHPSS practitioners working with Syrian and Rohingya displaced communities. Monthly data will be collected from the practitioners and their beneficiaries during the active control (six months) and supervision period (16 months over two terms). Outcomes are psychological distress (Kessler-6), burnout (the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory), compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and secondary traumatic stress (Professional Quality of Life Scale), perceived injustice, clinical self-efficacy (Counseling Activity Self-Efficacy Scale), service satisfaction, and quality (Client Satisfaction Questionnaire and an 18-item measure developed in this project). A realist evaluation framework will be used to elucidate the contextual factors, mechanisms, and outcomes of the supervision intervention.

Discussion: There is a scarcity of evidence on the role of clinical supervision in improving the well-being of MHPSS practitioners and the quality of service they provide to displaced people. By combining qualitative and quantitative data collection, the C4C project will address the long-standing question of the effectiveness and acceptability of clinical supervision in humanitarian settings.

Keywords: Humanitarian settings; Mental health practitioners; Online clinical supervision.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Burnout, Professional* / prevention & control
Burnout, Professional* / psychology
Caregivers
Compassion Fatigue*
Humans
Mental Health
Quality of Life

Grants and funding

RG203720/Elrha