Feasibility, Acceptability, and Initial Impact of a Community-Level Capacity-Building Mental Health Initiative for Migrant Arrivals

Background: Since August 2022, Chicago has received more than 37,000 migrants by buses from border states or arriving from other states by other means. Many of the asylum-seeking migrants have fled to the United States due to violence, persecution, poverty, or other human rights abuses. The session presents findings from a community-level, capacity-building mental health initiative implemented with 499 participants. Participants were Spanish-speaking frontline staff or volunteers working directly with migrant arrivals in emergency shelters, community-based organizations, or residing in temporary landing zones in police precincts throughout the Chicagoland area and collar counties. Participant staff roles include case managers, residential aids, community navigators, and volunteers. Staff participating in the intervention were not required to have any prior mental health knowledge or clinical training. Study objective: The intervention was designed to integrate universal mental health promotion and crisis prevention strategies to the city/state’s migrant crisis response to reduce adjustment distress and suicidality among arrivals. The intervention was also designed to provide emotional support to frontline staff working with high stress, trauma-impacted arrivals. The full intervention included a two-part, six-hour in-person training followed by five months of onsite and virtual reflective consultation with a licensed mental health provider to support implementation and buffer emotional burnout experienced by staff. Methods: The study reflects five cohorts (n = 499) who completed the professional development intervention over two days between December 2022 and March 2024. All participants were asked to complete a survey at the end of each training. Part 1 (n = 462) and Part 2 (n = 375) survey data was completed in Spanish or English, capturing the acceptability of the training content, knowledge/skills retention, and feasibility of implementing a mental health training intervention with non-clinical community providers. The data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 29) analytics software. Results. All five cohorts reported high levels of satisfaction with the training (98%), learning new information/skills relevant to their work (97%), and increased confidence serving migrants (96%). Participants learned how to lead a small emotional wellness group for migrants (98%) and felt confident with facilitation of groups (93%). Paired sample t-tests showed knowledge pre- and post-training significantly improved across all areas with large effect sizes (e.g., knowledge of strategies to calm distressed individuals (t(456) = -26.16, p<.001, d = -1.22). Conclusion and Implications. The findings provided evidence of the acceptability of the training curriculum designed to equip frontline staff with the skills to promote mental health and prevent mental health crises. Results showed participants had greater understanding of the term mental health and confidence to implement strategies to support the mental health of migrant arrivals. Participants overwhelmingly found the content relevant and its delivery in Spanish as necessary to support immediate implementation. These data provide efficacy evidence that can be leveraged to justify future proposals to sustain and scale up Illinois’ mental health supports for migrants and other communities impacted by migration trauma. The findings also provide initial evidence to support community-level, capacity-building approaches to mental health promotion through a public health lens.