Current Projects
REFUGE-ED
Project Title: REFUGE-ED - Effective practices in education, mental health and psychosocial support for the integration of refugee children
Summary: REFUGE-ED seeks to develop a Brokering Knowledge Platform of Effective Practices (BKP), which will host and promote education as well as mental health and psychosocial support solutions for the integration of migrant and refugee children in schools and more broadly in society. A process of co-creation - using a dialogic process with children, families, teachers, practitioners working on the ground, policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders, and applying a new communicative methodology developed by the consortium (SPICE) - will be applied to co-create knowledge and identify pilot actions to be carried out across multiple sites, including hot spots/reception identification centres, inclusive school environments and non-formal and informal social and learning environments, and institutional care (including unaccompanied minors). In total, REFUGE-ED project will carry out 3 multisite pilot actions across 6 countries (Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria). The final co-created BKP will provide tools, solutions and recommendations, including guidelines and criteria on capacity building training, solution adaptation and community engagement in easy to use off-line package, in different formats, to support the implementation, reuse and scalability of the piloted actions, and of other practices identified as successful.
Partners: Autonomous University of Barcelona (AUB; Lead Coordinator); University of Florence; New Bulgarian University; Kentro Merimnas Oikogeneias Kai Paidiou (Family & Childcare Centre; KMOP), Save the Children Denmark, Danish Red Cross, Support Group Network, Associazione Culturale Cooperazione Internazionale Sud-Sud (International Cooperation South South).
Project Website: www.refuge-ed.eu
Principal Investigator(s) (TCD): Dr Frédérique Vallières (TCD Lead), Prof Teresa Sordé Martí (PI)
Contact: Dr Sadhbh Byrne (byrnes83@tcd.ie)
Funding Agency: European Commission
Programme: H2020-SC6-MIGRATION-2020 (No. 101004717)
Funding Amount: €2,997,830.00
MRC
Project Title: Understanding and measuring pregnancy-related anxiety in low- and middle-income contexts: A pilot study in northern Ghana
Summary: Prenatal anxiety has been associated with poor health outcomes of mothers and children, but much of the evidence is based on high-income nations using measures that have been developed for the use in Western populations. Hence, we need first to systematically review research on prenatal anxiety in order to get a clear overview of levels of pregnancy-related anxiety and relations with maternal and neonatal mortality. Then, we will apply a bottom-up approach, using focus group discussions to investigate the domains of pregnancy-related anxiety in Ghanaian women. This will inform the adaptation and validation of a measure of prenatal anxiety that is culturally relevant and adapted to the context in Ghana. The adapted measure will be pilot tested in a survey study of 575 pregnant women in northern Ghana.
Partners: Dr Hamideh Bayrampour (University of British Columbia), Ghana Medical Help
Principal Investigators: Drs Kristin Hadfield (TCD) and Gilbert Abiiro (University for Development Studies)
Funding Agency: UK Medical Research Council
Programme: Global Maternal and Neonatal Health 2019
Funding Amount: £89,808.00
TS4TIC
Project Title: Transltional Simulation for Trauma Informaed Care in Acute Medical Settings
Summary: TS4TIC: aTrauma Informed Care Research Collaboration, funded by the HSE/HRB/RCPI through their RCQPS fund. TS4TIC seeks to use translational simulation - where teams of hospital staff and patient representatives train together by recreating scenarios of care between a patient and a team of staff in as near-reality as possible – to promote psychological trauma-informed care as a way to improve service delivery within acute hospital settings.
Partners: St James’s Hospital, Spirasi, DePaul Ireland, Ballymun Youth Action, Quality Matters
Principal Investigators (TCD): Dr Frédérique Vallières & Dr Cliona Ni Cheallaigh
Funding Agency: Health Research Board
Programme: Research Collaborations for Quality and Patient Safety
Funding Amount: €279,626 plus €27,961 (Knowledge Translation Award) = €307,587
FFPSS
Project Title: FFPSS - The effectiveness, mechanisms of change, and acceptability of Family Focused Psychosocial Support for at-risk adolescents in Lebanon
Summary: This mixed-method study aims to develop and evaluate a Family Systemic Intervention Module, named Sawa A2wa (Stronger Together), to use alongside UNICEF Lebanon's focused psychosocial support (FPSS) programme, to enhance current humanitarian programming and address a significant weakness of the current evidence base for at-risk adolescents and their families in conflict-affected contexts. Focused psychosocial support aims to promote wellbeing and resilience and to reduce mental ill-health in young people at risk of child protection violations, including gender-based violence, child marriage, and child labour. The immediate impact of the study is the focused support for 351 at-risk adolescents and their caregivers. Other impacts include the integration of the systemic family module into existing FPSS activities across Lebanon, and engagement with the National Mental Health Programme for longer term impact on psychosocial support provision.
Academic Partners: Dr FL Brown and Prof M Jordans (War Child Holland), Dr Maliki Ghoissany (Boston University), Dr T Betancourt (Boston College of Social Work), Prof A Carr (University College Dublin), Prof M Donnelly (Queen's University Belfast)
Technical and Implementing Partners: The Danish Refugee Council, Terre des Hommes Italia, War Child Holland, UNICEF Lebanon, the National Mental Health Program, the Global Health Institute and Community Advisory Boards
For more information: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT007419%2F1
Principal Investigator: Dr Tania Bosqui (TCD)
Funding Agency: Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC)/DFID
Programme: Development Grants
Funding Amount: £485,556.00
FIERCE
Project Title: FIERCE - Evaluating the efficacy of a Jordanian shared book-reading intervention to improve early childhood education
Summary: Community-led, shared book-reading interventions can improve early childhood development and reduce inequity. One such program, We Love Reading (WLR) was implemented in Jordan in response to the Syrian refugee crisis and involved mothers reading stories to children. We will examine the potentially transformative nature of WLR, by (a) evaluating WLR qualitatively and quantitatively and (b) interviewing the people who developed and implemented WLR (WLR Ambassadors, women trained in WLR, children who too part) to create a toolkit for effectively developing and implementing non-formal education resources elsewhere. To address the first aim, we will conduct a grounded theory analysis of interviews with stakeholders (i.e. parents, children) and will conduct a quantitative randomized controlled trial with Syrian refugee women and children. This will allow us to understand how an education intervention may impact children's educational trajectories during war and displacement, and how we can effectively intervene in other humanitarian crisis contexts.
Partners: Prof. Amal A lKharouf (University of Jordan), Prof Sophie von Stumm (University of York), Taghyeer Foundation
For more information: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/projects/education-learning-in-crises-developing-implementing-transformational-intervention/
Principal Investigator: Drs Kristin Hadfield (TCD) and Isabelle Mareschal (Queen Mary University of London)
Funding Agency: British Academy
Programme: Education and Learning in Crises
Funding Amount: £359,490.00
TCD PhD Provost Award
Project Title: Improving the Psychological Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers who have experienced torture and other forms of extreme trauma
Summary: The growing number of refugees is of particular concern to global mental health practitioners. Specifically, refugees are more likely to be trauma-exposed, and are at least 10 times more likely to experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to the general population. The current project will (i) assess the cross-cultural utility of the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ), as a valid and reliable tool to measure PTSD and CPTSD among torture survivors, as per ICD-11 categorisations; (ii) determine whether a diagnosis of CPTSD differentially predicts patient outcomes over time, as assessed by a range of psychological outcome measures.; (iii) determine whether using patient-centred approaches, the most appropriate and acceptable psychological treatment paths for asylum seekers and refugees who meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD or CPTSD.
Partners: Spirasi - The National Centre for the Rehabilitation of survivors of torture in Ireland.
Principal Investigator (TCD): Dr Frédérique Vallières (PI)
Contact: Aisling Hearns (hearnsai@tcd.ie)
Funding Agency: PhD Provost Awards (TCD)
Funding Amount: €95,000.00
COVID-19 Psychological Survey
Project Title: COVID-19 Psychological Survey
Summary: The COVID-19 Psychological Survey is a multi-wave study running throughout the COVID-19 outbreak to better understand how people are responding, understanding, and coping with the pandemic. Data is being used to map changes in response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, people’s mental health, and views on COVID-19 vaccination.Three waves of data collection have taken place so far, the first of which took place two days after the initial lockdown.
Partners: Part of a six-country, international research consortium, the Irish arm of the survey is being conducted by the Trinity Centre for Global Health (Dr. Frédérique Vallières), in collaboration with Maynooth University (Dr. Philip Hyland), Ulster University (Professor Jamie Murphy, Professor Mark Shevlin), Edinburgh Napier University (Professor Thanos Karatzias), and University of Sheffield (Professor Richard Bentall).
Principal Investigator (TCD): Dr Philip Hyland & Dr Frédérique Vallières
Project Website: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychology-consortium-covid19
Funding Agency:: Economic and Social Research Council (No. ES/V004379/1) ;with start-up funds from the University of Sheffield (Department of Psychology, the Sheffield Methods Institute and the Higher Education Innovation Fund via an Impact Acceleration grant administered by the University) and by the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences at Ulster University.
EASE
Project Title: Engaging Adolescents in Sexual Health Services in Ethiopia (EASE)
Summary: Engaging Adolescents in Sexual Health Services in Ethiopia (EASE) is a research collaboration between Trinity College Dublin and Addis Ababa University, with the support and guidance of the Embassy of Ireland's, Overseas Development Assistance programme in Addis Ababa. EASE is aligned with Ireland and Ethiopia's high-level commitments to engage youth and adolescents in the development and delivery of sexual and reproductive health (SRH), as enshrined in the Nairobi Statement on ICPD25: Accelerating the Promise. EASE uses gender transformative, participatory action research methods to (i) determine what adolescents consider to be their meaningful engagement within SRH service delivery and programming in Ethiopia and (ii) describe a model of good practice for how to meaningfully involve adolescents in SRH programming. Achieved through a civil society partnership with Amref, a civil society organisation working in Afar to support and provide SRH services to young people, findings arising from EASE will inform policy and decision-making at bilateral, federal, regional, and district levels to ensure that adolescents are more meaningfully engaged within the design and delivery of SRH services. EASE will further identify potential entry-points for Irish Aid and the Embassy of Ireland to add value to bilateral policy priorities in this sphere and to complement existing Irish Aid-funded programming.
Co-Investigator (TCD): Dr Kristin Hadfield
Funding Agency: Irish Research Council
Programme: COALESCE/2021/97
Funding Amount: €337,288.50
The Missing Link
Project Title: Supervision - The Missing Link
Summary: Supervision is considered integral to quality mental health and psychosocial (MHPSS) interventions and features as a key recommendation in all major international guidelines on MHPSS in emergency and non-emergency settings. Despite its noted importance however, the provision of supervision remains a gap within MHPSS and protection programmes in humanitarian contexts and is often referred to as one of the most challenging aspects and unmet needs in programme implementation. Employing a collaborative process of tool development, which uses available evidence and structured feedback from experts and practitioners, The Missing Link aims to improve the quality of MHPSS and protection interventions in emergencies through the development of guidelines and tools for supervision (viz., an integrated model for supervision, IMS) for use across MHPSS programming globally.
Partners: The International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crescent Societies Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support, hosted by the Danish Red Cross (PS Centre)
Principal Investigator (TCD): Dr Frédérique Vallières
Contact: Dr. Meg Ryan (ryanm89@tcd.ie) & Dr. Nadeen Abujaber (nabujabe@tcd.ie)
Funding Agency: US Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (formerly USAID)
Programme: No. 720FDA19IO00106
Funding Amount: $1,692,208 USD