Abstract

As of Spring 2022, there are an estimated 65,000 Afghan evacuees who have been evacuated to the United States and many more are expected to arrive. Resettling refugee populations are characterized by a range of health disparities, most notably mental health disparities given high trauma exposure.- Family Strengthening Intervention for Refugees (FSI-R) is an evidence-based program to promote mental health in refugee communities that was develop for delivery “by refugees for refugees.” To respond to the high volume and heightened service needs of resettling Afghan populations in the U.S., our team proposes to adapt a digital tool to facilitate home visitor’s delivery of FSI-R in Afghan refugee communities at scale across the U.S. Our project has three aims: 1.) To work with faculty, students, and staff at BCSSW, Computer Science, and Engineering to adapt a digital FSI-R application to the Afghan culture, technical literacy, and context of Afghan families using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and human-centered design to co-develop the application with Afghan refugees in local communities in New England; 2.) Pilot-test the prototype application among a sample of Afghan trained home visitors working with refugee families to assess ownership, feasibility, acceptability, and initial impact of the intervention in improving family functioning and promoting child mental health and well-being; and 3.) Develop best practices for adaptation of mHealth tools across cultural contexts using human-centered design techniques. The pilot-tested application will help to respond to the urgent need for community mental health services among the Afghan refugee population by supporting rapid scale-up of FSI-R. The prototype will be the first step toward seeking additional funding to improve the quality of the application with visually sophisticated video and audio to create a more engaging user experience for better service delivery.