Training of Trainers for Self Help Plus (SH+)

Training of Trainers for Self-Help Plus (SH+), a 5-session stress management course of the World Health Organization for groups of up to 30 people, was held in Ankara with 20 participants consisting of psychologists and social workers from the Ministry of Health and the Turkish Red Crescent between 15-18 August 2022.

 

All over the world, people face a variety of challenges, from personal problems and stress caused by work or family to problems that affect entire communities, such as violence, illness, and lack of economic opportunity. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed Self-Help Plus (SH+), a stress management course aimed at self-help, to support individuals experiencing such difficulties. SH+ is a guided audio recording course that is applied to groups of up to 30 people for five weeks.

 

Training of Trainers for Self-Help Plus (SH+), which is carried out by the World Health Organization in cooperation with the Ministry of Family and Social Services of the Republic of Turkey and the Ministry of Health, and financed by the European Union Delegation to Turkey, within the scope of the Social Inclusion Project for Individuals with Mental Disabilities, consists of 5 sessions and delivered to psychologists and social workers from the Turkish Red Crescent.

 

SH+ is delivered by clinical psychologists Brandon Gray and Teresa Au, experts from the World Health Organization.

 

WHO technical officer Brandon Gray noted that the Self Help Plus (SH+) is a stress management-based course that uses audio recording to teach participants skills so that it is accessible and potentially disseminated to those who need it. He highlighted that the Ministry of Health in Turkey, WHO and other partners have plans to increase access to these skills for the Turkish population in recovery from the impact of COVID-19 and other adversities, and for Syrian refugees and other migrants who have faced and continue to face incredible challenges.

 

Teresa Au, who provides mental health consultancy for WHO, emphasized that they were really impressed by the high motivation of the psychologists and social workers who participated as future trainers and that the training was successfully completed. She said that the participants believed that they could train new facilitators and make a big difference in meeting people's mental health needs in Turkey.

 

The participants of Self-Help Plus emphasized that the training would be very useful for people who cannot reach psychotherapy services and who do not have financial resources and especially for refugee groups.