Developing research capacity for mental health interventions for youth in Haiti

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Developing research capacity for mental health interventions for youth in Haiti Abstract: The widespread and catastrophic destruction and casualties following the 2010 earthquake centered near Port-au-Prince, Haiti imposed an acute and unprecedented burden upon already strained Haitian mental health care delivery resources. Traumatic exposures and new psychosocial adversities, including displacement from homes, jobs, and schools and major disruptions in supplies and services, are expected to result in increased prevalence and severity of mental disorders in all sectors of the Haitian population. The anticipated extraordinary need will demand prudent and strategic allocation of inevitably limited resources. Development of novel, empirically-supported models for extending scarce mental health care resources can leverage them for greater coverage and benefit within the Haitian population. Intrinsic to building requisite mental health services in Haiti, is the further development of local research capacity that can advance the empirical base for effective mental health care delivery strategies in Haiti. The overarching aim of the proposed work is to strengthen and extend an existing institutional collaboration between Zanmi Lasante (ZL), a non-governmental organization delivering health care in Haiti, and Harvard Medical School (HMS), in order to develop local and collaborative capacity for epidemiologic, social science, and implementation research on mental disorders in Haiti. We propose to achieve this aim through coordinating needs assessment, reciprocal didactic seminar based training, and a practicum that encompasses design, implementation, and evaluation of a novel school-based youth mental health intervention in central Haiti. This intervention will potentially enhance school-based detection of youth at risk for mental disorders and then utilize teachers as mental health accompagnateurs to support youth access to appropriate care. If feasible, acceptable, and effective, this intervention can be studied for its potential to improve mental health outcomes for Haiti's youth in future research that will also further develop and consolidate ZL/HMS collaborative research capacity for mental disorders in Haiti. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed work will develop collaborative research capacity among Zanmi Lasante and Harvard Medical School investigators in Haiti and the U.S. through needs assessment, reciprocal didactic seminar based training, and a practicum that encompasses design, implementation, and evaluation of a novel school-based youth mental health intervention in central Haiti. This intervention will potentially enhance school-based detection of youth at risk for mental disorders and then utilize teachers as mental health accompagnateurs to support youth access to appropriate care. If feasible, acceptable, and effective, this intervention can be studied further for its potential to improve mental health outcomes for Haiti's youth.