Implementing a Digital Child Mental Health Screening, Literacy, and Management Tool in Faith-Based Settings

Implementing a Digital Child Mental Health Screening, Literacy, and Management Tool in Faith-Based Settings

The proposed project is to develop a Pediatric-Mental Health Digital Toolkit (P-MHDT) Toolkit to support innovative child mental health preventive interventions in FBO settings. This project focuses on developing a P-MHDT and carrying out a pilot feasibility evaluation in real world settings. A group of Mental Health Professionals (MHPs)/ Community Healthcare Workers (CHWs) will be trained and the P-MHDT Toolkit intervention will be tested in 6 Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) in Uganda.

The specific aims of this proposed study include:

Aim 1. To develop a P-MHDT (by employing qualitative focus-group interviews and user-centered design to enhance usability).

Aim 2. To train mental health professionals and community health workers (CHWs) for the P-MHDT approach of child mental health promotion in Uganda (including monitoring impacts of training on CHWs' program implementation competency).

Aim 3 (11-24 month). To estimate impacts of the P-MHDT on FBOs and families (i.e., caregivers' mental health literacy, practices, and children's mental health) when implemented in the real world FBO settings.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants must be at least 18 years of age. Participating parents must be caregivers of age 1-7 years old children.
• Children are not the subjects of this study, and will not participate in research activities.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Evidence of psychopathology or cognitive impairment severe enough to preclude giving consent, or completing the survey instruments or the focus group of the study.
• Minors (age <18) will also be excluded.