Although growing scientific evidence has highlighted beneficial effects of religion and spirituality on mental health and psychosocial well-being, the integration of religious and spiritual needs with mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian contexts has been identified as a gap. Accordingly, this can be linked to a lack of official related guidelines of how to address these concepts in the humanitarian sector. This issue becomes particularly relevant in contexts where religion and spirituality play a crucial role. This study explores this problem in the context of Indonesia which due to commonly occurring natural disaster is targeted by humanitarian responses, while also being a religious and spiritual country. The purpose of this study therefore responds to this background by discovering the integration of religion and spirituality in mental health and psychosocial support provided by humanitarian organisations in Indonesia and formulating recommendations on the same. This was operationalised through a qualitative approach, and more specifically an embedded single-case study design. Further, the material consists of information retrieved through interviews and documents, from humanitarian organisations selected through snowball sampling. Analysed with the support of the ADAPT model, an adapted version, the IASC MHPSS Guideline, and the additional Faith-Sensitive Guideline, this study concludes that humanitarian organisations operating in Indonesia, either mainstreamed or not, work with mental health and psychosocial support, and thereby also include approaches which consider religion and spirituality. However, while well aware of the contextual needs, in particular the latter is not formally integrated. Accordingly, this study suggests organisational capacity building on the integration of religion and spirituality in MHPSS, based on existing guidelines and institutional knowledge and capacity, in order to ensure and improve proper humanitarian responses.

Background. This paper reviews the efficacy of a community psychosocial arts program focused on building mental health capacity within post-Ebola Liberia. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the outcome effects of two groups using pre- and post-treatment data. We hypothesized that there would be a difference in symptoms pre- and post-treatment, and the longer program would yield more significant results. Methods. There was a total of 870 child participants. Of 40 sites, 24 were selected for a 5-month treatment (TG1) while the remaining 16 sites received 3 months of treatment (TG2). Paired t tests and a mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse pre- and post-psychological stress symptoms (PSS) for samples from both groups. Results. Separately, treatment group 1 (TG1) and treatment group 2's (TG2) paired t test yielded significant results (p < 0.001) for the decrease of PSS. The mixed-model ANOVA found that there were significant differences in total pre- and post-test PSS and a significant difference in PSS means over time. Conclusions. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant decrease in reported symptoms in both treatment groups pre- to post-intervention and a significant difference in total symptoms over time. However, the findings do not indicate that the longer programming was statistically different compared to the shorter programming. The study presented had gaps in data, largely due to limits in research during the crisis. However, this paper provides a unique case study for challenges that can be faced for project evaluation in emergency settings.

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support is a growing field of intervention in humanitarian assistance worldwide. The influence of culture and faith in individual and collective coping mechanisms and recovery processes has brought scholars to emphasize the need for MHPSS programming to adopt a cultural and faith sensitive approach to increase the cultural relevance and efficacity of interventions. However, despite official guidelines for humanitarian agencies to integrate cultural and faith sensitivity in their operations, there is an information gap on designing such an approach and its effects on the implementation and success of interventions. This qualitative study explores the opportunities and challenges encountered when adopting a cultural and faith sensitive approach within MHPSS interventions in the context of the Red Cross in Zambia, Ghana, Niger, and South Africa. Based on in-depth interviews with key informants from the Red Cross, the results provide insights into the strengths and opportunities of adapting to local cultural norms and practices and cooperating with faith-based and traditional community leaders during the implementation of MHPSS. The study concludes on the potential of such an approach to strengthen the local capacities of faith-based actors and reduce the stigmatization of mental illness.