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BMC Medicine
Published in: BMC Medicine 1/2014

Open Access 01-12-2014 | Commentary

Are school-based mental health interventions for war-affected children effective and harmless?

Authors: Verena Ertl, Frank Neuner

Published in: BMC Medicine | Issue 1/2014

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Abstract

In recent years, different approaches to large-scale mental health service provision for children in war-affected, mainly low- and middle-income, countries have been developed. Some school-based programs aiming at both strengthening resilience and reducing symptoms of trauma-related distress have been evaluated. In an article published in BMC Medicine, Tol and colleagues integrate their findings of the efficacy of universal school-based intervention across four countries and do not recommend classroom-based intervention as a treatment of trauma-related symptoms, since no consistent positive effects were found. On the contrary, for some children this type of universal intervention may impair recovery. Since universal school-based programs similar to the one evaluated here are widely implemented, Tol et al.’s results are highly relevant to inform the field of mental health service provision in war-affected countries.
Please see related article http://​www.​biomedcentral.​com/​1741-7015/​12/​56.
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Metadata
Title
Are school-based mental health interventions for war-affected children effective and harmless?
Authors
Verena Ertl
Frank Neuner
Publication date
01-12-2014
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Medicine / Issue 1/2014
Electronic ISSN: 1741-7015
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-12-84

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