The Experiences of Mental Health Professionals Providing Online Psychological Support to Refugees During the COVID-19: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

This study examines the online psychological support experiences of professionals who provide mental health support for refugees during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, which was carried out in a phenomenological design, in-depth online interviews were conducted with ten mental health professionals residing in Turkey. The data were analyzed using by thematic analysis. The data obtained from the interview were gathered under five main themes and nineteen sub-themes. In these main themes, the prejudices of mental health professionals towards online psychological support and the adaptation processes to this process; the advantages and disadvantages of online psychological support, the emotions experienced during the online psychological support process, and coping methods in some problematic situations were obtained when working with refugees. At the beginning of the difficulties reported by mental health professionals, there were the difficulties of providing online psychological support to refugees with limited opportunities during the pandemic period and the challenges caused by external problems in working with psychological issues online. It was determined that their most important need was to learn the intricacies of maintaining mental health care during a crisis. For this reason, it is thought that mental health professionals working with refugees need more support and that more work should be done in the field.