1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«In Canada, creative expressive workshops for asylum-seeking children and adolescents were implemented as a Psychological First Aid (PFA) intervention in temporary shelters. The present exploratory study aims to describe the implementation of these workshops to assess whether the intervention met core elements of PFA and explore its potential in supporting the diverse needs of asylum-seeking youth in temporary shelters, adopting a process-evaluation research approach.» (p. 483)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«On average, around 15 children participated to each workshop from ages 4 and up, whereas an average of five children participated in the groups for the 2- to 3-year-olds.» (p. 486)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

«Our results suggest that a crucial element of these workshops was the need to foster emotional safety. […] Emotional safety was not automatic or granted during the workshops. The establishment of a “safe space” where some psychological comfort could be offered was possible in time, within and across sessions, once some basic conditions were met. Of importance, these conditions embodied some of the core principles of PFA (Brymer et al., 2012; Shultz & Forbes, 2013; WHO, 2011), such as (1) establishing a sense of safety and comfort by offering acceptance and containment of emotions thanks to ritualized activities; (2) fostering connectedness by establishing a basic sense of trust among the children and between children, parents, and the facilitators; and (3) fostering hope by providing a time and space where play and free creative expression were possible.» (p. 490) However, it also emerged that «[…]parents were very busy learning how to navigate the new system, suggesting that during their stay in temporary shelters parents may not have the mental space and physical time to participate to supportive interventions on a regular basis. As facilitators reported, parents were grateful to them especially because they could do their tasks without having to worry about their children for a few hours and could also ask the facilitators for support or information when needed, which happened quite often.» (p. 492)