Child Mental Health in HIV-impacted Low-Resource Settings in Developing Countries: Global Research Fellowship

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Project Abstract/Summary The proposed “Child Mental Health in HIV-impacted Low-resource settings in Developing countries: Global Research Fellowship” (CHILD-GRF) training program will provide state-of-the-art methods training, mentoring, and “hands-on” research experience to promising early career researchers committed to research careers focused on addressing HIV prevention and the serious burden of child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) in the context of HIV/AIDS. The overall expectation is to increase, strengthen, and sustain the capacity of research institutions in Uganda, a sub-Saharan African (SSA) country heavily affected by HIV/ AIDS. CHILD- GRF is guided by: Aim 1. Identify and train a cadre of 18 SSA scientists from Uganda (6 per year over 3 consecutive recruitment cycles) capable of serving as a Principal Investigators (PIs) on extramurally funded studies focused on combination HIV prevention (CHP) addressing persistent poverty, community violence, co- occurring CAMH problems, and HIV care and prevention in HIV-impacted communities. The program will establish and provide: (a) multi-disciplinary training in substantive areas and methods for identification and treatment of CAMH in HIV-impacted low-resource settings in developing countries, applying interventions that have been culturally adapted to SSA along with training in methods focused on SSA context through a 3-year summer intensive training at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), led by multidisciplinary faculty, (b) an intensive mentorship program and training infrastructure that fosters long-term research collaboration with senior researchers and mentors from the global north and the global south; (c) hands-on learning opportunities through activities between summers, including site visits to NIH funded research projects and centers focused on HIV prevention and mental health interventions in communities heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS; (d) funding for pilot studies; and (e) technical support and peer review for pilot studies, manuscript preparations, and grant applications for larger studies. Aim 2. Bring together a network of committed mentors from the global north and the global south to ensure quality training for promising new investigators from Uganda who would focus their research on culturally-congruent interventions addressing HIV with an emphasis on co-existing CAMH and CHP with potential implications for LMICs, including SSA. Aim 3: Delineate key factors that underlie successful mentorship and training of new investigators from Uganda, with potential implications for new investigators focused on CAMH and HIV-prevention interventions in LMICs, including SSA. CHILD-GRF has a structured, 6- week intensive advanced summer training program. Each fellow will be paired with a mentor from WUSTL and Uganda. A rigorous program evaluation will track individual fellow progress and program success. This application is aligned with Fogarty's strategic priority of strengthening the scientific capacity of institutions in LMICs to conduct HIV research relevant to the evolving HIV epidemic in their country.