International migrants day: EU4Health projects working to support migrants' health

On international migrants day, let’s take a look at EU4Health projects that have worked with displaced people from Ukraine and have recently come to an end:  

• Well-U: Operating in Italy, Greece, Hungary, and Romania, the Well-U project has focused on promoting the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of Ukrainian refugee children and their caregivers through universal, preventative interventions delivered by local NGOs, educators, cultural mediators, and peer refugees. Project partners have implemented adapted programs (such as ReachNow, TeamUp, MGSC, and PM+) to support refugees in specific locations. Additionally, the project has established the WELL-U Community of Practice to connect practitioners, policymakers, and others working with migrants and refugees across Europe. 
• U-RISE has worked to improve the mental wellbeing of the displaced people of Ukraine by building sustainable capacity for the implementation of scalable, evidence-based mental health interventions adapted to the specific and diverse needs of refugees affected by the war. The project has created a European network of Ukrainian and Russian-speaking mental health professionals, built capacity for evidence-based psychological interventions in key countries, and developed sustainable plans for scaling and transferring interventions across the EU. 
• MESUR is a consortium of seven partners that have worked to improve the mental health and wellbeing of Ukrainian refugees in Europe through knowledge generation, capacity building, and scalable interventions, such as:  
  • Implementing the evidence-based iFightDepression® suite, translated into Ukrainian and Russian in six implementation countries (Poland, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, and Estonia); 
  • Training health professionals, including displaced Ukrainians, on depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other prevalent disorders; 
  • Developing a guideline on best practices and an implementation toolkit to support further countries in implementing iFightDepression® to support refugee populations. 
• The Peace of mind project has developed and implemented a widely available, innovative and evidence-based approach to strengthen mental health and psychological wellbeing of refugees and displaced people in Europe by offering scalable and cost-effective programmes applicable across cultures and free from stigmatisation. The project has worked to strengthen the psychosocial wellbeing and performance capacity of service providers and mental health professionals. Additionally, it has contributed to reducing the symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety among the displaced populations, and improving their quality of life.  

In addition, two new projects aiming to provide specific mental health support to migrants, vulnerable youth and unaccompanied migrants and minors have started in September 2024: 

• The MinM project focuses on enhancing access to the MHPSS (Mental Health and Psychological Support Network) for persons in a migration situation. The consortium will engage professionals and persons in a migration situation in order to create 4 MHPSS service toolkits, which will be used as a basis for organising training for mental health and non-mental health professionals. The service toolkits will be tested and piloted and public authorities will be involved in order to encourage these to incorporate the project results in their policies.  
• The EASE-Y project aims to contribute to the promotion of mental health wellbeing and prevention of mental health disorders in particularly vulnerable early adolescents, including migrants, refugees, children displaced from Ukraine and Roma children. The action will be implemented in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia.  Building on the synergies between the previous Well-U and U-Rise projects, the project will pilot test the use of a WHO evidence-based intervention for young adolescents, called ‘Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE)’. This aims to improve the mental health of early adolescents aged 10 to 15 struggling with symptoms of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. 

Background  

EU4Health is the fourth and largest of the EU health programmes. The EU4Health programme goes beyond an ambitious response to the COVID-19 crisis to address the resilience of European healthcare systems. The programme provides funding to national authorities, health organisations and other bodies through grants and public procurement, contributing to a healthier Europe.  

HaDEA manages the vast majority of the total EU4Health budget and implements the programme by managing calls for proposals and tenders from 2021 to 2027.