InforMH

Co-designing mental health interventions with displaced communities in Jordan.

2022

The Challenge

InforMH project is an ongoing research project by the International Rescue Committee’s innovation arm, Airbel Impact Lab. As an NGO, their requirements are:

To address social stigma and encourage refugees to seek mental health services. 
To validate that such services are in demand and therefore require public funding and support. 
To prove that a human-centered design approach can create lasting and sustainable change (further funding and recognition for Airbel).

The Outcome

With those three major outcomes in mind, we facilitated co-design workshops with displaced communities across Jordan to determine the best user experiences.

Two co-design workshops with 6 community representatives to develop initial designs. 
Six larger workshops with 80+ refugees to test and iterate prototypes. 
Two online, quantitative surveys with over 100+ participants to finalise prototypes. 
A/B testing two websites with over 2000 participants to evaluate content/messaging.

Client

The International Rescue Committee

Role

User Research
UX Prototyping
Workshop Facilitation

Mind, Body, Soul and Connection were the final co-designed categories with examples being given for each one. For example, “Call or visit your friends and family” was an example given under Connection’. Cards were designed for easy sharing on social media.

How self care tips appeared on our prototype website.

The feeling of visiting a concealed “clinic” at a trusted community member’s home was the most popular option as it gave the most privacy and allowed those suffering from abuse more easily avoid detection from their abuser.

While this option was popular as it allowed people to learn from the answer’s to others’ problems, many were concerned about the ability to share their own problems if their online activity is being monitored by a family member.

While we assumed remote therapy would be the most popular option, it was last because privacy is hard to come by as families constantly share the same space. Abusive husbands are also very controlling over their wives’ phones.

InforMH

Co-designing mental health interventions with displaced communities in Jordan.

2022

The Challenge

The Outcome

Client

Role

How do we encourage displaced communities in Jordan to look after their mental health?

We facilitated 8 workshops with over 90 participants to co-design the most culturally suitable experiences.

Our insights uncovered the most effective Arabic self screeners to use and the most user friendly way to showcase results.

We also uncovered the most relatable self care tips and grouped them into simple categories.

And explored the most accessible formal care options that reduce taboos around therapy and provide the most privacy.

We then validated our findings with a larger panel of more than 100 participants in an online survey.

We tested all of our insights on a prototype website and linked to it via a social media campaign and posters at pharmacies.

Our approach showed that informal, human centered approaches to mental health are more effective than formal, clinical one. The project is ongoing.