BETTER CARE

Trauma, psychotherapeutic care, youth welfare, refugees, stepped care model

Prof. Dr Dipl.-Psych. Rita Rosner, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (consortium leader)

Prof Dr Reinhold Kilian, University of Ulm, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II

Dr Dipl.-Psych. Heinz Kindler, German Youth Institute

6 years (start February 2019)

Since 2015, up to 70,000 unaccompanied young refugees have been living in child and youth welfare centres in Germany. In order to enable the successful integration of young refugees who are at an increased risk of mental health problems, it is essential to improve healthcare for these young people. The aim of "BETTER CARE" is therefore to offer (unaccompanied) young refugees tiered healthcare adapted to their needs. The youth welfare centres participating in the project are randomly assigned either to the usual care, combined with a current stress assessment of their young people, or to "BETTER CARE" care. This "BETTER CARE" provision includes evidence-based trauma-focused behavioural therapy for clinically relevant stress symptoms and the "My Way" prevention programme for mild to moderate stress symptoms. The behavioural therapy comprises 12-18 individual sessions with a therapist who is specially trained by the project team. The prevention programme is led by social workers from the respective facilities, who are also specially trained and supervised by the project team. The "BETTER CARE" project thus offers youth welfare organisations support and targeted training using scientifically proven methods.

Unterhitzenberger, J., & Rosner, R. (2016). Case report: manualized trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy with an unaccompanied refugee minor girl. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 7(1).

Unterhitzenberger, J., Eberle-Sejari, R., Rassenhofer, M., Sukale, T., Rosner, R., & Goldbeck, L. (2015). Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy with unaccompanied refugee minors: a case series. BMC psychiatry, 15(260).

Pfeiffer, E., & Goldbeck, L. (2017). Evaluation of a Trauma-Focused Group Intervention for Unaccompanied Young Refugees: A Pilot Study. Journal of traumatic stress, 30(5), 531-536.

Pfeiffer, E., Sachser, C., Rohlmann, F., & Goldbeck, L. (2018). Effectiveness of a trauma-focused group intervention for young refugees: a randomised controlled trial. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 59(11), 1171-1179.

Rosner, R., Sachser, C., Hornfeck, F., Kilian, R., Kindler, H., Muche, R., et al. (2020). Improving mental health care for unaccompanied young refugees through a stepped-care approach versus usual care+: study protocol of a cluster randomised controlled hybrid effectiveness implementation trial. Trials 21:1013. doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-04922-x

Garbade, M., Eglinsky, J., Kindler, H., Rosner, R., Sachser, C., & Pfeiffer, E. (2023). Factors affecting the acculturation strategies of unaccompanied refugee minors in Germany. Frontiers in Psychology, 14: 1149437. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1149437

Hornfeck, F., Eglinsky, J., Garbade, M., Rosner, R., Kindler, H., Pfeiffer, E., & Sachser, C. (2023). Mental health problems in unaccompanied young refugees and the impact of post-flight factors on PTSS, depression and anxiety-A secondary analysis of the Better Care study. Frontiers in Psychology, 14: 1149634. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1149634

Maike Garbade, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, Ulm University Hospital, Steinhövelstr. 5, 89075 Ulm, Tel.: 0731 500 61680, better.care[at]uniklinik-ulm.de

Jenny Eglinsky, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, Ulm University Hospital, Steinhövelstr. 5, 89075 Ulm, Tel.: 0731 500 61789, better.care[at]uniklinik-ulm.de

Jacob Segler, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University Hospital Ulm, Steinhövelstr.5, 89075 Ulm, Tel.: 0731 500 61688, better.care[at]uniklinik-ulm.de