Adaptation and assessment of a common element treatment protocol designed to improve mental health in forcibly displaced populations

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ABSTRACT With support from my primary mentor Dr. Borba, my co-mentors Drs. Freier, Dorsey, and Gelaye, and my collaborator Dr. Bird, I propose a comprehensive interdisciplinary research and training plan focused on developing my expertise in clinical intervention research and qualitative assessment of cross cultural adaptations of mental health treatments for people who have migrated due to forced displacement. The proposed study investigates the potential avenues of treatment for mental health disorders that arise due to forced displacement in people from Venezuela who have migrated to Peru. My research program goal is to be an independent researcher and examine mental health treatment for the purpose of understanding treatment seeking and retention for mental disorders in stigmatized and marginalized populations, such as forcibly displaced peoples. Preliminary findings from Venezuelans who have migrated into Peru due to the recent Venezuelan exodus suggest that there are risk factors for mental health particular to the migration journey context. Thus, this proposal utilizes qualitative methods to examine, and subsequently target, context specific migration factors that facilitate treatment seeking and retention for forcibly displaced populations in Peru with mental disorders. Framed within implementation science this proposal will include in person interviews with people who have been forcibly displaced from Venezuela and migrated into Peru. These interviews will be leveraged to adapt the Common Elements Treatment Approach, a transdiagnostic intervention, for the unique challenges of forced displacement. In collaboration with my mentors, I have developed a comprehensive training plan that will prepare me with the requisite skill set for a research career in global mental health. My training and career development goals are to cultivate skills in: (1) qualitative methods, (2) cross cultural adaptations of mental health treatments, and (3) analysis of clinical interventions. These skills will allow me to become an independent scientist focused on global mental health.