Adolescence encompasses a critical developmental phase, which fosters or hinders psychological, physical, and social health. Whole-school interventions take a universal approach in targeting the ...entire school environment (“school climate”) to improve adolescent outcomes; however, little is known about the mediating role of school climate on these effects.
Our study (N = 5,539) was situated within the Strengthening Evidence base on scHool-based intErventions for pRomoting randomized controlled trial, which demonstrated the effectiveness of a lay counselor–delivered school intervention among secondary school students in Bihar, India. We examined the potential mediating role of school climate and its subcomponents (relationships at school, sense of belonging, commitment to academic achievement, and participation in school events) at 8 months postrandomization of the Strengthening Evidence base on scHool-based intErventions for pRomoting intervention on longer term adolescent health outcomes (depressive symptoms, experiences of bullying, and perpetration of violence) at 17 months postrandomization. The trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02484014).
School climate mediated the effects of the intervention on all three outcomes of interest. A nurturing school environment, characterized by supportive and engaged relationships with teachers and peers, a sense of belonging, and active participation in school climate predicted lower rates of depressive symptoms, experiences of bullying, and perpetration of violence. Noteworthy, it was the quality of these relationships, rather than the commitment to learning, which was most predictive of outcomes.
Educational policies should consider bolstering the school’s social environment to directly impact adolescent health and well-being.
Evidence-based psychological treatments are among the most effective interventions in medicine and are recommended as the first line of treatment to address the significant burden of depression, ...anxiety, and stress-related disorders worldwide. Despite this evidence, these treatments remain inaccessible for the great majority of the world's population. Global Mental Health (GMH) is an evolving discipline of research and practice that places a priority on improving mental health and achieving equity in mental health for all people worldwide. Equity is a driving principle, and this recognizes that inequalities exist within all nations and between nations. At the heart of this equity, there is the need for person-centered care. This essay discusses how GMH has sought to address a range of barriers to scale up the delivery of psychological treatments for common mental disorders. While the initial focus of the field has been to address access to quality care in low- and middle-income countries, this article also draws attention to how similar strategies are being implemented at scale in some high-income countries, with appropriate modifications to suit the context. In considering some of these evidence-based, contextually driven strategies, psychological communities have potential to address the growing burden of depression and anxiety worldwide.
Public Significance Statement
This article highlights innovative, patient-centered solutions from the broader field of Global Mental Health to scale up evidence-based psychological treatments worldwide.
Summary Background Parenting interventions have been implemented to improve the compromised developmental potential among 39% of children younger than 5 years living in low-income and middle-income ...countries. Maternal wellbeing is important for child development, especially in children younger than 3 years who are vulnerable and dependent on their mothers for nutrition and stimulation. We assessed an integrated, community-based parenting intervention that targeted both child development and maternal wellbeing in rural Uganda. Methods In this community-based, cluster randomised trial, we assessed the effectiveness of a manualised, parenting intervention in Lira, Uganda. We selected and randomly assigned 12 parishes (1:1) to either parenting intervention or control (inclusion on a waitlist with a brief message on nutrition) groups using a computer-generated list of random numbers. Within each parish, we selected two to three eligible communities that had a parish office or a primary school in which a preschool could be established, more than 75 households with children younger than 6 years, and at least 15 socially disadvantaged families (ie, maternal education of primary school level or lower) with at least one child younger than 36 months. Participants within communities were mother–child dyads, where the child was 12–36 months of age at enrolment, and the mother had low maternal education. In the parenting intervention group, participants attended 12 fortnightly peer-led group sessions focusing on child care and maternal wellbeing. The primary outcomes were cognitive and receptive language development, as measured with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 3rd edn. Secondary outcomes included self-reported maternal depressive symptoms, using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and child growth. Theoretically-relevant parenting practices, including the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment inventory, and mother-care variables, such as perceived spousal support, were also assessed as potential mediators. Baseline assessments were done in January, 2013, and endline assessments were done in November, 2013, 3 months after completion of the programme. Ethics approval was received from Mbarara and McGill universities. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT01906606. Findings Between December, 2012, and January, 2013, 13 communities (194 dyads) were randomly assigned to receive intervention, and 12 communities (154 dyads) were assigned to a waitlist control. 319 dyads completed baseline measures (171 in the intervention group and 148 in the control group), and 291 dyads completed endline measures (160 in the intervention group and 131 in the control group). At endline, children in the intervention group had significantly higher cognitive scores (58·90 vs 55·65, effect size 0·36, 95% CI 0·12–0·59) and receptive language scores (23·86 vs 22·40, 0·27, 0·03–0·50) than did children in the control group. Mothers in the intervention group reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms (15·36 vs 18·61, −0·391, −0·62 to −0·16) than did mothers in the control group. However, no differences were found in child growth between groups. Interpretation The 12 session integrated parenting intervention delivered by non-professional community members improved child development and maternal wellbeing in rural Uganda. Because this intervention was largely managed and implemented by a local organisation, using local community members and minimal resources, such a programme has the potential to be replicated and scaled up in other low-resource, village-based settings. Funding Plan Uganda via Plan Finland (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and Plan Australia (Australian Aid).
Common mental disorders, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress, are leading causes of disability worldwide. Treatment for these disorders is limited in low- and middle-income ...countries. This systematic review synthesizes the implementation processes and examines the effectiveness of psychological treatments for common mental disorders in adults delivered by nonspecialist providers in low- and middle-income countries. In total, 27 trials met the eligibility criteria; most treatments targeted depression or posttraumatic stress. Treatments were commonly delivered by community health workers or peers in primary care or community settings; they usually were delivered with fewer than 10 sessions over 2-3 months in an individual, face-to-face format. Treatments included
common elements, such as nonspecific engagement and specific domains of behavioral, interpersonal, emotional, and cognitive elements. The pooled effect size was 0.49 (95% confidence interval = 0.36-0.62), favoring intervention conditions. Our review demonstrates that psychological treatments-comprising a parsimonious set of common elements and delivered by a low-cost, widely available human resource-have moderate to strong effects in reducing the burden of common mental disorders.
This overview of recent research on health behaviour change in developing countries shows progress as well as pitfalls. In order to provide guidance to health and social scientists seeking to change ...common practices that contribute to illness and death, there needs to be a common approach to developing interventions and evaluating their outcomes. Strategies forming the basis of interventions and programs to change behaviour need to focus on three sources: theories of behaviour change, evidence for the success and failure of past attempts, and an in-depth understanding of one’s audience. Common pitfalls are a lack of attention to the wisdom of theories that address strategies of change at the individual, interpersonal, and community levels. Instead, programs are often developed solely from a logic model, formative qualitative research, or a case-control study of determinants. These are relevant, but limited in scope. Also limited is the focus solely on one’s specific behaviour; regardless of whether the practice concerns feeding children or seeking skilled birth attendants or using a latrine, commonalities among behaviours allow generalizability. What we aim for is a set of guidelines for best practices in interventions and programs, as well as a metric to assess whether the program includes these practices. Some fields have approached closer to this goal than others. This special issue of behaviour change interventions in developing countries adds to our understanding of where we are now and what we need to do to realize more gains in the future.
Community-based mental health services are emphasized in the World Health Organization's
, the World Bank's
, and the Action Plan of the World Psychiatric Association. There is increasing evidence ...for effectiveness of mental health interventions delivered by non-specialists in community platforms in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). However, the role of community components has yet to be summarized. Our objective was to map community interventions in LMIC, identify competencies for community-based providers, and highlight research gaps. Using a review-of-reviews strategy, we identified 23 reviews for the narrative synthesis. Motivations to employ community components included greater accessibility and acceptability compared to healthcare facilities, greater clinical effectiveness through ongoing contact and use of trusted local providers, family involvement, and economic benefits. Locations included homes, schools, and refugee camps, as well as technology-aided delivery. Activities included awareness raising, psychoeducation, skills training, rehabilitation, and psychological treatments. There was substantial variation in the degree to which community components were integrated with primary care services. Addressing gaps in current practice will require assuring collaboration with service users, utilizing implementation science methods, creating tools to facilitate community services and evaluate competencies of providers, and developing standardized reporting for community-based programs.
Psychological therapies are highly effective interventions for a range of mental health conditions and often preferred by many patients over medication. Unfortunately, most people who could benefit ...from these therapies do not receive them. This is true even in the United States, which enjoys relatively high numbers of mental health professionals. The lack of access is further compounded by structural inequities, such as income, geography, and race. The low and inequitable access to one of the most effective interventions for mental health conditions is, arguably, one of the most significant barriers to addressing the growing burden of mental health conditions globally. There are several reasons which might contribute to this inequity, notably the historical reliance on complex treatment protocols designed in settings which serve a nonrepresentative group of persons with mental health problems and, consequently, an emphasis on specialist providers and in-person protocols. These factors lead to long and expensive training, variable quality of delivery, and enhanced costs and challenges to patient engagement. In contrast to medication, the lack of a commercial incentive to promote psychological therapies means that there are no market forces which fuel their scaling up. Given there will never be enough psychologists to serve the large unmet and growing mental health needs in the population, we consider stepped and collaborative models that leverage the range of expertise offered by diverse providers, to offer a pathway to scale up a person-centered approach for psychological treatments. In this article, we highlight three innovations that address some barriers and the potential roles of clinical psychologists to broaden the reach of psychological therapies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Lack of reliable and valid measures of therapist competence is a barrier to dissemination and implementation of psychological treatments in global mental health. We developed the ENhancing Assessment ...of Common Therapeutic factors (ENACT) rating scale for training and supervision across settings varied by culture and access to mental health resources. We employed a four-step process in Nepal: (1) Item generation: We extracted 1081 items (grouped into 104 domains) from 56 existing tools; role-plays with Nepali therapists generated 11 additional domains. (2) Item relevance: From the 115 domains, Nepali therapists selected 49 domains of therapeutic importance and high comprehensibility. (3) Item utility: We piloted the ENACT scale through rating role-play videotapes, patient session transcripts, and live observations of primary care workers in trainings for psychological treatments and the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP). (4) Inter-rater reliability was acceptable for experts (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC(2,7) = 0.88 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.81–0.93), N = 7) and non-specialists (ICC(1,3) = 0.67 (95% CI 0.60–0.73), N = 34). In sum, the ENACT scale is an 18-item assessment for common factors in psychological treatments, including task-sharing initiatives with non-specialists across cultural settings. Further research is needed to evaluate applications for therapy quality and association with patient outcomes.
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•We review and assess cultural relevance of common factors rating tools.•We develop and pilot a novel tool to assess competence in global mental health.•The tool demonstrates good psychometric properties when used by non-specialists.
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