Project 437523

THE ISSUE: There are more than 79.5 million forcibly displaced persons across the globe who experience a disproportionately high prevalence of mental health issues. Forty percent of the world's refugee and displaced people are under the age of 18. Uganda hosts more than 1.4 million refugees, the 3rd largest refugee hosting nation in the world and the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our CIHR funded research in Kampala, Uganda found that 74% of urban refugee adolescent girls and young women, and 49% of adolescent boys and young men, reported depression symptoms. Psychological stressors among refugee youth include trauma, violence and stigma. Food, water and sanitation insecurity are linked with anxiety and depression in diverse contexts, but little is known of their association with youth mental health. There are limited scalable, youth-tailored approaches to reduce depression among refugee youth. OUR IDEA: This innovative study involves working with urban refugee and displaced youth aged 16-24 in Kampala, Uganda to adapt Group Problem Management Plus (Group PM+), a WHO scalable intervention, for refugee youth. We will also develop 'Participatory Ecosocial Approaches to Community Empowerment' (PEACE), a participatory mapping intervention to identify and address environmental stressors. We will compare the effectiveness of a) Group PM+ alone, b) PEACE alone, and c) Group PM+ and PEACE together, compared with the standard of care, in reducing psychological distress among urban refugee adolescents and youth. OUR APPROACH: Phase 1) Qualitative research to identify linkages between social, environmental, and resource scarcity stressors, and adaptation of Group PM+; 2) implementing a 2x2 factorial trial with refugee youth aged 16-24 in 4 informal settlements in Kampala; 3) participatory knowledge mobilization. IMPACT: Knowledge of efficacious strategies to improve refugee youth mental health that has the potential to inform research with 31.8 million refugee youth globally.