Low Intensity Family Support for Refugees in an LMIC

November 2, 2026 updated by: Stevan Weine, University of Illinois Chicago

The rapidly growing scale of humanitarian crises requires new response capabilities geared towards addressing populations with prolonged high vulnerability to mental health consequences and little to no access to mental health, health, and social resources. This R21 develops and pilot tests a novel model for helping urban refugee families in LMICs with little to no access to evidence-based mental health services, by delivering a transdiagnostic family intervention for common mental disorders in health sector and non-health sector settings. The project is located in Istanbul, Turkey. Aim 1 forms a Family Support Design Team (FSDT) to adopt the PM+ and CAFES manuals into a family support (FS) intervention for use with refugee families by lay providers in community sites and nurses in clinical sites using a four-session multiple family group format. Aim 2 pilots FS with families in community and clinical sites, and then through observations and qualitative interviews, assesses FS's feasibility, fidelity, the impact of context and local capacity, the experiences of intervention delivery, and practitioner and organizational perspectives on scale up. Aim 3 conducts pre, immediate post, and 3-month post assessments of the refugee families who received FS through all the sites, to demonstrate the kind of pre-post changes that have been reported for comparable interventions and to determine key parameters of interest with sufficient accuracy and precision. This exploratory investigation, conducted with the support and advice of the World Health Organization, will strengthen the research capabilities of the academic and community partners in Istanbul and will develop new evidence-based mental health services for refugees in Turkey and other LMICs, as well as for refugees and migrants in low resource communities in the United States.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

RATIONALE The rapidly growing scale of global humanitarian crises requires new response capabilities geared towards addressing populations with prolonged high vulnerability to mental health consequences and little access to health and social resources. The World Health Organization (WHO), under the leadership of Dr. Mark van Ommeren, has been advocating for low resource-intensity cognitive behavioral therapy (LICBT) for such conditions. They conducted two large RCTs of Problem Management Plus (PM+), a brief, basic, one-on-one, paraprofessional-delivered version of LICBT for adults, which demonstrated clinically significant reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms at 3 months. LICBT could help to address some needs among Syrian refugees, but our recent D43 supported longitudinal study of 30 Syrian refugee families in Istanbul, found that one key challenge is its fit with the strong family context of Syrians. The investigators found evidence of families with adult and/or children with CMD symptoms and challenges managing stress, but also evidence of family strengths and resilience, and families facing multiple adverse challenges. In August 2017, Dr. Weine met with Dr. van Ommeren at the WHO, and they agreed to work in partnership to extend the WHO's LICBT approach to families. In September 2017, Weine et al convened a roundtable with key stakeholders in Istanbul, which reached a consensus about the need for a new family intervention that included elements of PM+ but also of family interventions, for delivery in a group format. Specifically, the investigators chose to incorporate elements of Coffee and Families Education and Support (CAFES), a NIMH funded family support and education intervention that the investigators previously developed and evaluated with refugee families from Bosnia and Kosovo. Other key implementation challenges are who will conduct the intervention, what training do they require, what organizational capacity is required, and how to best integrate FS into community and clinical sites.

AIM 1 To form a Family Support Design Team (FSDT) to adopt the PM+ and CAFES manuals into a family support (FS) intervention for use with Syrian refugee families by lay providers in community sites and nurses in clinical sites using a four-session multiple family group format.

AIM 2 To pilot FS with families in community and clinical sites, and then through observations and qualitative interviews, to assess FS's feasibility, fidelity, the impact of context and local capacity, the experiences of intervention delivery, and practitioner and organizational perspectives on scale up.

AIM 3 To conduct pre, immediate post, and 3-month post assessments of the Syrian refugee families who received FS through all the sites, to demonstrate the kind of pre-post changes that have been reported for comparable interventions and to determine key parameters of interest with sufficient accuracy and precision.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
215

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Turkey (Türkiye)
      • Istanbul, Turkey (Türkiye)
        • Can Association
      • Istanbul, Turkey (Türkiye)
        • Hiraeth
      • Istanbul, Turkey (Türkiye)
        • Insan for Psychosocial Support
      • Istanbul, Turkey (Türkiye)
        • Syrian Nour Association
      • Istanbul, Turkey (Türkiye)
        • Turkish Red Crescent
      • Istanbul, Turkey (Türkiye)
        • Yusra Community Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

12 years to 55 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Syrian refugee family living in Istanbul
  • contains both adult caregivers (18-55) and at least one of their children (<18 and >11 years) living in one household
  • one adult or adolescent with > 3 on the GHQ-12
  • willing to participate in the intervention and research procedures
  • able to give written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Families who do no have a child <18 and >11 years old

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Family Support Group

Family Support Groups will be piloted with families in community and clinical sites. Each pair of facilitators will pilot two groups of 6 families each. Each group is 4 sessions lasting 2 hours each. Each of the sessions incorporates didactic talks, family discussion, and separate breakout groups for adolescents and adults. Family Support intervention incorporates cognitive-behavioral theory of PM+ which underlies evidence-based techniques focused on stress management and behavioral activation. Family support intervention also incorporates resilience theory, which explains family protective processes that can ameliorate the negative consequences of hardships and challenges and enable healing and growth in families.
Behavioral: Family Support Group

Family Support Groups will be piloted with families in community and clinical sites. Each pair of facilitators will pilot two groups of 6 families each. Each group is 4 sessions lasting 2 hours each. Each of the sessions incorporates didactic talks, family discussion, and separate breakout groups for adolescents and adults. Family Support intervention incorporates cognitive-behavioral theory of PM+ which underlies evidence-based techniques focused on stress management and behavioral activation. Family support intervention also incorporates resilience theory, which explains family protective processes that can ameliorate the negative consequences of hardships and challenges and enable healing and growth in families.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (Adult Participants)
Time Frame: baseline, immediate post, three months post

PCL-5 is a 20-item self-report measure that assesses the 20 DSM-5 symptoms of PTSD. A total score of 31-33 or higher generally indicates probable PTSD, with 0-80 as the total range.The PCL-5 has a variety of purposes, including: Monitoring symptom change during and after treatment; Screening individuals for PTSD; Making a provisional PTSD diagnosis. The PCL-5 is a self-report measure that can be completed by patients in a waiting room prior to a session or by participants as part of a research study.

It takes approximately 5-10 minutes to complete.The self-report rating scale is 0-4 for each symptom. Rating scale descriptors are the same: "Not at all=0," "A little bit=1" Moderately=2" "Quite a bit=3" and "Extremely=4."

Summing all 20 items (range 0-80) provides a total severity score and using a cut-point score of 31-33 appears to be reasonable based upon current psychometric work. The higher the score, the more severe.
baseline, immediate post, three months post
General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12)
Time Frame: baseline, immediate post, three months post

The 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) (Goldberg & Williams, 1988) consists of 12 items, each one assessing the severity of a mental problem over the past few weeks using a 4-point Likert-type scale (from 0 to 3). The score was used to generate a total score ranging from 0 to 36, higher scores indicating poorer mental health and higher severity of distress.
baseline, immediate post, three months post
Child and Adolescent Trauma Screen (CATS) (for Adolescent Participants)
Time Frame: baseline, immediate post, 3 month post

The CATS is a screening instrument for posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in children and adolescents.

The measure consists of 20 items assessing symptoms across the four DSM-5-defined clusters: re-experiencing, avoidance, negative mood and cognitive changes, and hyperarousal.

Each item is rated on a four-point scale (0=never; 1=sometimes; 2=often; 3=almost always) reflecting both symptom frequency and intensity. For participants aged 7 to 17, a composite symptom score is derived by adding the scores of all items, resulting in a total score range 0 to 60. Higher scores= a worse outcome.

Scoring: 0-14= not elevated; 15-20 mild/moderate trauma-related distress; 21 or grater= elevated distress, positive screening threshold; 25 or greater= high trauma-related distress, probably PTSD. Recommend to use a cut-off ≥ 21 as indication of a clinically relevant level of symptoms.
baseline, immediate post, 3 month post

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of Illinois Chicago

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Stevan Weine, MD, University of Illinois Chicago

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
August 16, 2019

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
February 28, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
July 15, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
May 29, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
June 4, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
June 7, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
November 4, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
November 2, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
November 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 2018-0547
  • R21MH117759 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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