Mental Health and Psychosocial Support

Among refugees in Nairobi, Kenya served by RefugePoint through the Urban Refugee Protection Program (URPP), symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress are common. Other issues that bring clients to counseling at RefugePoint include grief, parenting, family conflicts, financial stress, and medical issues. Poor mental health results in psychological distress, which can impair social interaction and daily functioning. For the clients we serve through the URPP, receiving mental health support through counseling is just as essential as business support, food assistance, or education support.

Our counselors offer one-on-one counseling to individuals, spouses, families and children. For clients with symptoms of depression or trauma, we offer 12-session therapy groups. For others who face a mix of challenges, support groups offer a chance to build connections, strengthen peaceful coexistence and learn about healthy coping skills. Teenagers and young adults benefit from life skills training designed to build and strengthen their interpersonal and problem-solving skills.

Trauma-informed

RefugePoint takes a trauma-informed approach to supporting refugee mental health. A trauma-informed approach recognizes the widespread impact of trauma and potential paths to recovery, screens clients for symptoms of trauma, and prevents pre-traumatization. It integrates healing-centered engagement into MHPSS services, emphasizing a strengths-based approach that acknowledges resilience, empowerment, and the inherent capacity for healing.

Community-Based MHPSS

Our Community-Based MHPSS programming is grounded in the recognition of the resilience of refugee communities and the valuable knowledge these communities hold in prevention, support, and recovery. By centering their lived experiences—whether firsthand or through caregiving and community roles—we foster collective healing and seek to strengthen community structures. Through primary mental health intervention (prevention), we integrate mental health education into existing RefugePoint programs (mainstreaming MHPSS) to expand access and support diverse needs.

Additionally, we promote mental health literacy through creative and movement-based campaigns, and structured dialogues with community leaders, ensuring interventions are community-informed and sustainable.

Looking ahead, we will expand our efforts to include peer specialist training and mentorship for Refugee-Led Organizations (RLOs) in MHPSS, strengthening grassroots leadership in mental health care, as well as continue our engagement in the process of participatory MHPSS community-based needs and asset mapping.

These initiatives enable deep listening, the co-creation, and refinement of programs, aiming to enhance community capacity in mental health response while transitioning toward a community-owned approach.

Humanitarian staff are often working in highly stressful situations, sometimes away from their homes and loved ones. They experience higher rates of anxiety, depression and trauma symptoms than the general population. We believe that access to mental health and psychosocial support for humanitarian workers is a moral imperative.

The purpose of staff well-being is to support healthy human beings within the workplace, and sustain a self-aware, productive, creative, culturally responsive workforce grounded in cultural humility. We provide MHPSS support to our staff by offering support around stress management, resilience, and self-care planning. We also offer provide basic training in key MHPSS areas, and resources such as related newsletters, podcasts, assessments, and a library of resources. We also offer opportunities to access both peer support and clinical support.