Introduction to the

Operational Guidelines

Operational Guidelines on Community based mental health and psychosocial

support in humanitarian settings: Three-tiered support for children and families
An orientation to the field test version
 To Understand:

• Why new guidelines have been developed

• What these guidelines are (and what they aren’t)

Objectives for • What the process for development looked like

this Module • Who is the intended audience

• How the guidelines structured

• How to access the guidelines and associated

material

• What is included in the rest of the orientation

package
A Few Initial
Questions to
Consider…
 Based on your experience,
what are the key challenges
facing children in humanitarian
settings around the world?

…and how have those

challenges changed and
shifted over the past few
decades?
 What lessons have you
learned in your own work
about the best ways to
promote wellbeing and
resilience among children in
crisis settings?
Wellbeing…describes the positive state of being when a
person thrives. In mental health and psychosocial work,
wellbeing is commonly understood in terms of three
domains:

• Personal wellbeing – positive thoughts and emotions such as

hopefulness, calm, self-esteem and self-confidence
• Interpersonal wellbeing – nurturing relationships, a sense of belonging,
the ability to be close to others
• Skills and knowledge – capacities to learn, make positive decisions,
effectively respond to life challenges and express oneself
UNICEF, Inter-Agency Guide to the Evaluation of Psychosocial Programming in Emergencies, United Nations Children’s Fund, New York, 2011.
Resilience…is the ability to overcome adversity and
positively adapt after challenging or difficult experiences.

• Children’s resilience relates not only to their innate strengths and

coping capacities, but also to the pattern of risk and protective factors
in their social and cultural environments

Dr. Michael Ungar, in Hague Symposium Report, 2015

Why develop new
guidelines? 
 3 Reasons

1 2 3
the unique emerging evidence on lessons learned from
challenges that today’s the determinants of the evaluation of
crises pose for children’s children’s resilience existing approaches
safety, well-being  and
optimal development
 poverty

and more… terrorism

The unique
challenges that
today’s crises
pose for children’s
safety, well-being
and optimal
natural development climate change
disasters
unprecedented
levels of
displacement
 personality, genetic
makeup, presence or
absence of disabilities

Personal
sense of belonging Factors

emerging
safety evidence on relationships
Environmental the Social with families,
Factors Factors teachers,
determinants friends
of children’s
access to resilience
essential
services
 Need to improve
engagement with
families and
communities

lessons learned
Need to from the
improve evaluation of
transitions from existing
Need to improve
early approaches on the scale and
emergency
quality of MHPSS
response to
interventions
recovery and
regular
programming
The Guidelines
An Introduction to the Guidelines
by Zeinab Hijazi
UNICEF Mental Health & Psychosocial Support
Specialist
Access the video here
Process for Development
● Proposed by UNICEF in IASC MHPSS RG meeting 2015

● Development of first draft

Presentation to UNICEF NY HQ stakeholders
Conference calls for buy-in and input by UNICEF field staff

● Development of second draft

Compendium and case study development

● Review by UNICEF working group & IASC RG Community-based

PS working group members

● Field testing 2018/2019

● Revisions and Finalization 2020

● Launch 2020
 They are not step
by step
What These instructions for
Guidelines how to build new
AREN’T MHPSS
programmes from
scratch
 Intervention activities and
operationalizing guidance to
embed MHPSS programmes for
child and family wellbeing within
What These communities
Guidelines ARE
Information on how to
implement, target and adapt
interventions based around
community needs and capacity
 UNICEF staff

Audience
Partners and other agencies
working with children in
humanitarian settings to help
them effectively embed MHPSS
programmes for child and family
well-being in communities
How are the
guidelines
structured?
Understanding Community
Based MHPSS
The Social Ecological Model:
Three Tiers of Support
MHPSS theory of change
Operationalizing Community
Based MHPSS: A Framework
• 9 Circles of Support
• Implementing Activities within
the Framework
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Community Engagement
Compendium of Resouces
Participation and Mobilization
Annexes
1. Three case studies: South Sudan, Nepal,
Lebanon
2. What Other Actors Can Do – Action Sheets
from IASC Guidelines for MHPSS in Emergency
Settings
3. UNICEF Key Commitments, Frameworks and
Minimum Standards
4. UNICEF Community Based MHPSS log frame
5. Scalable Interventions
6. The Evolving Humanitarian Context:
Resilience Strengthening Responses
7. Entry points for MHPSS in the Humanitarian
Programme Cycle at UNICEF
How to access the
guidelines and
associated material
How to access the guidelines and associated
material
• Download the
UNICEF Operational Guidelines on CB-MHPSS
, and accompanying orientation material
(coming soon) now available on MHPSS.net
via this link.
• Access the dedicated group on MHPSS.net
that includes the resources in its associated
compendium.
• Access the Feedback form for field testing
here (link available soon)
• Files/links for the future printing of the
MHPSS Operational Guidelines:
MHPSS - PRINT COVER Spreads + Spine x-1
a.pdf
 - this is one page of outside cover spread
with built-in spine text for “perfect
binding” (not saddle stitched which uses
staples).  There is no inside cover file as
they are intentionally blank.
MHPSS - PRINT INTERIOR x-1a.pdf
 - individual interior pages 
• The MHPSS Native Files v2.zip for Country
Office translations can be found  here
How is this orientation package
for the CB MHPSS Operational
Guidelines structured?
How is this orientation structured?
1-Introduction to the Guidelines 4-Monitoring and Evaluation
-Why new guidelines? -The MHPSS Log Frame

-Overview of the guidelines 5-Adapting Resources -When to

Adapt
-Overview of the orientation
-How to Adapt
2-Theory and Concepts
6-Community Engagement and Participation
-Community Based MHPSS
-Key steps for Community Engagement
-The IASC MHPSS Pyramid
-The Social Ecological Pyramid 7-Application of the Guidelines
-The MHPSS Theory of Change -Operational Framework
-A Practice Activity
-9 Circles of Support
8-Annexes
3-Compendium and Forum on MHPSS.net
-Introduction to the Compendium of Resources
-Introduction to the MHPSS.net working group
Questions?