Kohrt Brandon A, Kaiser Bonnie N
George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Confl Health. 2021 Sep 26;15(1):72. doi: 10.1186/s13031-021-00408-y.
There are ongoing methodological advances in measuring mental health in humanitarian crises. This Special Section describes numerous innovations. Here we take a practitioner's view in understanding the key issues related to assessment of mental health in humanitarian contexts and how the innovations contribute to the field.
In this guide for practitioners, we address the following issues: (1) clarifying the intended purpose of conducting mental health assessment in humanitarian crises: why is this information collected and for what intended purposes?; (2) determining what type of tool should be selected and the types of psychometric properties that are important for tools serving this particular purpose; (3) when a validated tool is not available, considering how qualitative and quantitative methods should be used to generate information on validity; and finally, (4) how to report on validity and its implications for interpreting information for humanitarian practitioners, governments, care providers, and other stakeholders supporting people affected by humanitarian emergencies.
Ultimately, mental health assessment tools are not independent of the group with which they were designed, nor are the psychometric properties of the tools or their utility universal across purposes. Therefore, organizations and stakeholders will optimize their positive impact when choosing tools wisely, appropriately adapting and validating tools, and providing guidance on how to interpret those findings to best serve populations in need.
在人道主义危机中衡量心理健康的方法不断取得进展。本专题介绍了众多创新成果。在此，我们从从业者的角度来理解与人道主义背景下心理健康评估相关的关键问题，以及这些创新如何推动该领域的发展。
在本从业者指南中，我们探讨以下问题：（1）明确在人道主义危机中进行心理健康评估的预期目的：为何收集这些信息以及用于何种预期目的？（2）确定应选择何种类型的工具以及对于服务于这一特定目的的工具而言哪些心理测量特性很重要；（3）当没有经过验证的工具时，考虑应如何使用定性和定量方法来生成有关有效性的信息；最后，（4）如何报告有效性及其对为人道主义从业者、政府、护理提供者以及支持受人道主义紧急情况影响人群的其他利益相关者解释信息的意义。
最终，心理健康评估工具并非独立于其设计所针对的群体，工具的心理测量特性或其效用也并非在所有目的上都是通用的。因此，各组织和利益相关者在明智地选择工具、适当地调整和验证工具，并就如何解释这些结果以最好地服务于有需要的人群提供指导时，将优化其积极影响。
