Currently accepted at: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Sep 1, 2025
Date Accepted: Feb 26, 2026
This paper has been accepted and is currently in production.
It will appear shortly on 10.2196/83365
The final accepted version (not copyedited yet) is in this tab.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Text Messaging for Mental Health Promotion with Migrants Returning to Mexico: Content Development and Piloting with a Needs Assessment Approach
ABSTRACT
Background:
Returning migrants face a variety of challenges that limit their ability to integrate and adapt to Mexico, this represents a break in their life trajectory, with effects on family dynamics, mid- and long-term projects, and uncertainty about short-term plans
Objective:
This article describes the co-production approach to design and develop a WhatsApp-based psychoeducational program entitled “Here Again: Coping with Return” which aims to promote the adoption of self-care behaviors to reduce the risk of mental health and substance use problems in returning migrants.
Methods:
The process included four phases: 1) a situational diagnosis of the needs of migrants in preventing mental health problems and reducing the risks associated with alcohol use; 2) design and development of content; 3) evaluation by a group of experts in mental health and substance use; and 4) pilot testing.
Results:
The process led to an appropriate psychoeducation program, based on research data and committed to the primary goal of improving the management of emotions and encouraging the development of habits of self-care, even in conditions of psychosocial vulnerability. The pilot study found that 80% of participants continued through the last of the 16 weeks of the program; this is an encouraging sign for the feasibility of the intervention.
Conclusions:
The use of co-production allowed for the development of a culturally-sensitive intervention for returning migrants, using a language and examples related to the needs of this population. The intervention was found to be useful for helping participants to deal with daily emotional problems.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.