Good Practice Criteria
Inclusivity & Participation
Does the practice ensure that its services are accessible and responsive to diverse groups?
The practice is focused on refugees and asylum seekers with psychotherapeutic needs. Accessibility for a range of groups is ensured through collaboration with and training of language mediators, interpreters and health mentors who are familiar with both German culture and the culture/language of refugee and asylum seeker communities. This approach is an essential component of the project, ensuring high cultural sensitivity and adaptability. Another key component is its strong collaboration with relevant local institutions.
Good practice checklist
✓ Adopt a participatory, gender mainstreaming, age sensitive, inclusive approach and secure equal opportunities for beneficiaries.
✓ Make sure to provide precise and accessible information on how to access services in different languages, formats and through different communication channels
✓ Ensure that equality and diversity are an essential part of how services are delivered, taking into consideration different needs and capacities.
✓ Make reasonable adjustments to service delivery in order to take into account particular needs of the target group.
Does the practice involve the active participation of the receiving society?
The practice involves and collaborates with relevant local institutions, authorities, and professionals (including counselling services, health actors, therapists, professional networks, volunteers, and the University of Konstanz). It aims to secure simpler, more regular access for refugees and asylum seekers to the public health system (specifically to psychotherapeutic care) by filling certain gaps, such as those relating to interpretation services and cost.
Good practice checklist
✓ Consider integration as a two-way process, and aim for change on the side of the receiving society.
✓ Foresee an active role for the receiving society in the design and implementation stages of the practice, and involve actions that encourage native communities and beneficiaries to work together.
Does the practice consult its beneficiaries and involve them in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the action?
The practice carries out regular evaluation of its services and gathers feedback from patients and health mentors, in order to adapt as needed. Health mentors are paid for their work, and refugees and asylum seekers benefit from free access to professional psychotherapy.
Good practice checklist
✓ Organise consultation activities with migrant beneficiaries in order to co-create actions where possible and secure their feedback on the design and evaluation of the action.
✓ Provide appropriate feedback mechanisms by which beneficiaries can safely express their opinions on service quality.
✓ Use flexible and interculturally-adapted formats and compensate participants for their contribution.
Relevance & Complementarity
Are the objectives of the practice relevant to the needs of the migrants?
The practice aims to build sustainable cooperation structures between relevant stakeholders, including local health actors, that will enable better analysis of migrants’ specific needs and improve capacity to address them. It is also creating a coordination office through which it will be able to expand its activities.
Good practice checklist
✓ Identify and analyse gaps in integration support and design actions to fill these gaps.
✓ Aim for systemic improvement, satisfying the needs of the majority of target groups in the target area.
Is the practice relevant to the empowerment of migrants, the strengthening of their autonomy and the support of their long-term integration?
Migrant patients are empowered through improvements to their psychological health, as well as to their understanding of and access to the German (psychological) healthcare system. In addition, the practice’s health mentors are empowered through greater experience of the treatment of trauma and the specific needs of migrants that have experienced trauma.
Good practice checklist
✓ Devise actions with the overarching goal of providing positive feedback and making migrants more confident, autonomous and independent.
✓ Ensure that services contribute to the strengthening of the capacities of migrants/migrant communities.
✓ Include (or create the preconditions for) actions that facilitate long-term integration.
✓ Address discrimination and information gaps as obstacles to long-term integration.
Does the practice align with the priorities, strategic goals and policies of other relevant stakeholders, and contribute to the wider integration framework?
The practice promotes and secures the right of migrants to access psychological healthcare. Collaboration with relevant actors promotes integration measures.
Good practice checklist
✓ Ensure that all actions are in line with international and European human rights standards.
✓ Make sure that the services offered contribute to the strengthening of the capacities of relevant institutions to support future development.
Effectiveness
Is the practice adequately planned and based on a comprehensive design?
The practice is well designed with a clear objective and involves relevant actors from different sectors, ensuring comprehensive support. Since the project is evaluated in scientific studies, indicators are likely to be measurable and achievable. Measures were developed in strong cooperation with the district and the local administration. It employs well-trained professional staff (e.g. psychologists), operates a coordination office, and coordinates the recruitment, training, work and supervision of health mentors and interpreters.
Good practice checklist
✓ Aim for actions that achieve observable outcomes among the target group or contribute to changes during the implementation of the action.
✓ Make sure that the objectives and planned results of the activity are feasible and clear.
✓ Develop a communications strategy during the design phase of the action and pay attention to communication with host communities and local authorities.
✓ Ensure the practice is based on indicators that are measurable, achievable, and relevant.
✓ Develop a staff management plan to identify team members with the right skills to work with beneficiaries, and their needs for training and further qualification.
Does the practice regularly monitor implementation and evaluate its results?
The project is scientifically supervised and evaluated, including at the individual level in terms of treatment success among patients.
Good practice checklist
✓ Ensure regular monitoring of action implementation and compare actual performance to goals set during the design phase.
− Anticipate obstacles that might occur and plan alternative scenarios during the design phase of the action.
✓ Ensure achievement of intended outputs / outcomes.
✓ Determine whether practice outcomes are considered successful by beneficiaries, the host and practitioner communities, funders, and policymakers.
− Assess whether interventions contribute to long-term sustainable change.