The Olympic Evacuation Foundation Think Tank has compiled a list of resources to protect and promote mental health and psychosocial support outcomes for displaced people.
A new repository of resources is now available. If you are involved in sport for protection or run programs for displaced people, your programs likely include a mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) component. You may have skills related to psychosocial support but may not be aware of it. One of the goals of the Olympic Displacement Foundation (ORF) is to increase the understanding, awareness and promotion of safe sport as a tool to positively impact young people affected by displacement.
There is a wealth of innovative sport programs to address mental health drivers, including trauma, self-efficacy, and social inclusion. Programs can use sports such as soccer, basketball, skateboarding, volleyball, and taekwondo, as well as games and the arts. However, good practice in this area is not often documented for use by others. As a result, many coaches and facilitators do not intentionally use sport activities to meet participants’ mental health needs. Similarly, mental health professionals may not be aware of the evidence or methods for using sport to improve mental health and social bonding. These knowledge and awareness gaps mean that we risk missing significant opportunities to improve the mental health and psychosocial support of millions of young people who are displaced by war, persecution, disasters, climate, or other challenges.
Quality approaches using sport and physical activity are present at every level of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s MHPSS intervention pyramid: Figure: Intervention pyramid for mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies (IASC, 2021, p.6).
In early 2022, the ORF think tank mapped high-quality tools and good practices in sport and MHPSS, making them accessible to program designers, coaches, counsellors, monitoring and evaluation specialists and community members. The group catalogued over 130 tools and good practice guidelines and developed a roadmap to make these more widely available, particularly to young people and those living and working in the global south.
The group found there were several barriers to accessing these resources.
- Mostly English
- Many are long-format PDFs
- Most are not localized for a specific context
- It may be hard to find, buried in online archives.
- Many use non-specific terms that some professionals may not associate with mental health, such as peacebuilding, belonging and wellness.
- Many are intimidatingly long and filled with academic language.
Sharing resources in a publicly accessible repository, currently hosted on the Sport for Refugees Coalition page, will hopefully bridge gaps in understanding in both the sport and MHPSS fields and improve overall program quality.
Banner image credit: Game Connect – Youth Sport Uganda
