Piloting a Scalable, Post-Trauma Psychosocial Intervention in Tuvalu: The Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) Program
Open accessAbstract
Background: The Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) programme is a brief, scalable, psychosocial skill-building programme designed to reduce distress and adjustment difficulties following disaster.Objectives: We tested the feasibility, acceptability, efficacy and safety of a culturally adapted version of SOLAR in two remote, cyclone-affected communities in the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu.Method: This pilot adopted a quasi-experimental, control design involving 99 participants. SOLAR was administered to the treatment group (n = 49) by local, non-specialist facilitators (i.e. ‘Coaches’) in a massed, group format across 5 consecutive days. The control group (n = 50) had access to Usual Care (UC). We compared group differences (post-intervention vs. post-control) with psychological distress being the primary outcome. We also examined whether changes were maintained at 6-month follow-up.Results: Large, statistically significant group differences in psychological distress were observed after controlling for baseline scores in favour of the SOLAR group. Mean group outcomes were consistently lower at 6-month follow-up than at baseline. SOLAR was found to be acceptable and safe, and programme feedback from participants and Coaches was overwhelmingly positive.Conclusions: Findings contribute to emerging evidence that SOLAR is a flexible, culturally adaptable and scalable intervention that can support individual recovery and adjustment in the aftermath of disaster. RCTs to strengthen evidence of SOLAR’s efficacy are warranted.
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The long-term effectiveness of some interventions cannot be assessed because ten completed studies on these interventions did not report follow-up measurements.
“Furthermore, the long-term effectiveness of some interventions cannot be assessed because ten completed studies on these interventions did not report follow-up measurements [21,27,35,36,37,40,41,47,53,57].”
From Promoting Recovery from Disasters, Pandemics, and Trauma: A Systematic Review of Brief Psychological Interventions to Reduce Distress in Adults, Children, and Adolescents (2023) · cites this paper as [40]
The Methods (Data analyses; page unavailable) say the study compared symptom outcomes from post-intervention to six-month follow-up. The Results (Efficacy; page unavailable) report six-month follow-up scores and changes. Thus, this study did report follow-up measurements, contrary to the claim attributed to it; the paper does not establish whether the other nine studies did. (LLM, conf=0.90)
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredA controlled pre-post pilot study proved the acceptability, feasibility, and efficacy of a culturally adapted version of SOLAR with N = 99 Pacific Islanders exposed to Tropical Cyclone Pam in 2015.
“Another controlled pre–post pilot study [40] proved the acceptability, feasibility, and efficacy of a culturally adapted version of SOLAR with N = 99 Pacific Islanders that were exposed to Tropical Cyclone Pam in 2015.”
From Promoting Recovery from Disasters, Pandemics, and Trauma: A Systematic Review of Brief Psychological Interventions to Reduce Distress in Adults, Children, and Adolescents (2023) · cites this paper as [40]
The Methods (Study design and Participant recruitment) describe a controlled, pre–post pilot involving 99 residents of cyclone-affected Tuvalu. The Discussion (Summary of findings) supports acceptability and feasibility, but calls the efficacy results “provisional evidence,” so “proved” overstates the finding. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredReductions in psychological distress, PTSD symptoms, and functional impairment were found in the SOLAR intervention group relative to the TAU control group from pre- to post-intervention.
“Reductions in psychological distress, PTSD symptoms, and functional impairment were found in the intervention group relative to the control group from pre- to post-intervention.”
One uncontrolled and one controlled pre-post study indicated significant reductions in psychological distress and PTSD symptoms for SOLAR.
“The results of one uncontrolled [6] and one controlled pre–post study [40] indicated significant reductions in psychological distress and PTSD symptoms.”
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- Authors
- Gibson, K., Little, J., Cowlishaw, S., Ipitoa Toromon, T., Forbes, D., & O’Donnell, M.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Phoenix Australia Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia
- Corresponding author
- Gibson, Kari
- Venue
- European Journal of Psychotraumatology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2021-01
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1948253-1948253
- ISSN
- 2000-8066 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8354170
- OpenAlex
- W3188717257
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 1.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- European Journal of Psychotraumatology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Disaster Management and Resilience
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Resilience and Mental Health
- Keywords
- psychological distress, Tuvalu, culturally tailored interventions, scalable interventions, group intervention, feasibility and acceptability
- MeSH terms
- Psychological Distress, Psychosocial Intervention, Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Micronesia, Middle Aged, Pilot Projects, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Wounds and Injuries, Resilience, Psychological, Cyclonic Storms, Disaster Victims, Culturally Competent Care
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