Mental Health and Socioeconomic Integration of Refugees: The Effects of Peer Support

Refugees and asylum seekers in Europe have high mental health needs but face barriers in accessing mental health services. These barriers can be internal (stigma, cultural differences) or institutional (complex health systems, logistics). Taking advantage of the AGIR program, which helps refugees find stable jobs and accommodation, we randomly assign refugees into four groups which differ from one another in the way information on benefits of and access to mental healthcare is shared. Our ambition is to address the following research questions: compared to traditional informa­tion dissemination methods (translated leaflets), i) can discussions with peer-helpers tackle stigma and informational barriers and increase uptake of mental health services?; ii) does providing refugees with a helpline in their own language enabling them to book an appointment with a health­care provider, remove other, more institutional, barriers?; and iii) ul­timately, do refugees on a care pathway benefit more from the support offered by the AGIR program? The study also investigates whether our intervention has differentiated impacts depending on gender and country of origin.