Mindfulness-SOS for Refugees

Worldwide, refugees and asylum seekers suffer at high rates from trauma and stress-related mental health problems. The research group therefore developed, and initially piloted in a single-site open trial, a novel mindfulness- and compassion-based digital intervention program - Mindfulness-SOS for refugees (Mindfulness-SOS). The pilot study had promising preliminary findings of utilization, feasibility and related dose-response effects of intervention program engagement with mental health outcomes. The digital intervention program was developed based on randomized control trial data of a group-based mindfulness- and compassion-based program for forcibly displaced people.To address common limitations of mobile health interventions such as attrition, engagement and adherence, the investigators will implement a personalized stepped-care adaptation and augmentation of Mindfulness-SOS, that entails providing intensified (remote) guidance for FDPs that do not respond to the intervention, to optimize capacity to therapeutically benefit from Mindfulness-SOS. To do so, the investigators propose to carry out a randomized controlled Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) study to test and optimize the therapeutic outcomes of Mindfulness-SOS, using an adaptive intervention sequence of guidance format intensities among N ≅ 170 (50% female) adult trauma-affected Eritrean asylum-seekers residing in Israel.

Inclusion Criteria:East African refugee or asylum seeker living in IsraelTigrinya fluency and literacyOwns a personal smartphoneExclusion Criteria:Active suicidal ideation or/and past suicide attempt in the last year or/and passive suicidal ideation with clinical indicators of imminent suicide risk (e.g. severe paranoia)Current mental health treatment (i.e. psychotherapy or/and group therapy at least twice a month)Participation in the MBTR-R group in a previous study