The purpose of this project is to enhance the usefulness and cultural relevance of the Spanish version of the PMQ-9, a questionnaire that assesses manic symptoms in individuals with bipolar disorder.
Geographic Area: Global
Autism Intervention Network on Behavioral Health (AIR-B)
The purpose of this multi-site study is to develop and evaluate a multi-phase implementation and sustainment strategy to support evidence-based practice use across different interventions for individuals with autism, settings, and ages.
*In partnership with UCLA, UC Davis, Rochester, Penn, Drexel, and Kansas
Cultural adaptation of WHO’s Caregiver Skills Training program for Mongolian parents of autistic children
In Mongolia, there are virtually no services or professionals who can provide any related services for autistic children and their families. In response to these disparities of autism care in many countries, the WHO developed the Caregiver Skills Training (CST), which is a training program that teaches basic behavior management skills that are often needed for caregivers of autistic children. Although CST can be widely disseminated among Mongolian families, it has not been translated or adapted to fit the needs of Mongolian caregivers due to logistical difficulties and costs. This project aims to: (a) conduct rigorous cultural adaptation and translation of the CST materials, and (b) demonstrate community-academic partnership and a model for global collaboration in autism intervention research
Mobile mental health in community-based organizations: a stepped care approach to women’s mental health
Of every 10 women in rural India, one suffers from a common mental disorder such as depression. For many, depression goes untreated and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality rates. Several factors, specifically for women in rural India, including stigma, lack of provider mental health workforce, and travel times. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve detection and treatment rates among women without overburdening the scarce mental health resources in rural India.
The “Mobile Mental Health in Community-Based Organizations: A Stepped Care Approach to Women’s Mental Health” study aims to develop and implement a mobile mental health intervention for women through community-based organizations. The intervention is delivered in a stepped-care approach where women receive different levels of intervention depending on the severity of their mental health needs.
Global Mental Health Databank (MindKind)
| The goal of this study is to learn how best to design a databank – a pool of data – about emotional health experiences from youth from around the world. The University of Washington is partnering with Sage Bionetworks to develop a user-friendly data platform for mental health interventions for youth. The overall scope of this project is to recruit 1,500 youth in South Africa, India, and the UK (each) to engage in a mental health intervention and both share their data and help co-design a user-friendly database for lay people, researchers and other key stakeholders. The University of Washington will provide global mental health expertise to Sage’s team to guide design, implementation, and interpretation of data collected. |
Disseminating a user-friendly guide: Advancing the science of intervention adaptation and improving access to evidence-based psychological treatment
Adaptation of evidence-based practices and programs (EBPs) is a necessary component of the implementation process. EBPs must be adapted to function with the constraints of real-world practice settings, providers’ expertise, and patients’ needs. The science of intervention adaptation is hungry for well-defined methods of EBP adaptation to guide decision making. A how-to guide for EBP adaptation titled MODIFI: Making Optimal Decisions for Intervention Flexibility during Implementation, is under development with NIMH funding (F32 MH116623). MODIFI will be disseminated via multiple strategies locally, nationally, and internationally. Dissemination of MODIFI will improve the practice of intervention adaptation by providing practitioners with a how-to guide that is (a) evidence-based, (b) usable, and (c) supported by the expert consensus of implementation practitioners and researchers.
WHO special initiative for mental health
The WHO Director-General has identified mental health for accelerated implementation as part of WHOs 13th General Programme of Work (GPW13), covering 2019-2023. In response, WHO MSD established the WHO Special Initiation for Mental Health (2019-2023): Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for Mental Health; an ambitious plan to support 12 countries to include mental health in UHC, to support access to quality and affordable care for mental health conditions, reaching 100 million more people. The University of Washington was contracted to undertake the first six country assessments, which are expected to inform subsequent multi-stakeholder theory of change workshops.
Following these workshops, it is intended that individual countries will develop unique designs and costed country workplans, should they be successful in obtaining funds to proceed with a five-year implementation. The University of Washington lead the process and collate materials for six country assessments for WHOs Special Initiative for Mental Health. Preliminary reports were presented at a multi-stakeholder / multi-country meeting on 21-23 January 2020.Within WHOs cluster for non-communicable diseases and mental health (NMH) is the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use (MSD), which oversees policy and practice related to mental and brain health and substance use.
Southern African Research Consortium for Mental Health Integration (S-MHINT)
S-MhINT is a research and capacity building consortium in Southern Africa that aims to strengthen regional mental health integration into primary health, antenatal, and chronic care platforms using implementation science in under-resourced areas of eastern South Africa, central Mozambique, and southern Tanzania.
S-MhINT has the following overall aims: 1) To establish and engage a trans- disciplinary Research consortium of academics, government representatives, non-governmental organizations in South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania to address the burden of common mental disorders in primary Health care settings; 2) To examine multi-level influences on the uptake, implementation, effectiveness and sustainability of an existing scale up of an integrated Mental health package for chronic disorders at primary Health care level in two different districts having different resource capacities in South Africa; 3) To build implementation science and dissemination Research capacity in South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania, recruiting service providers, managers, and policy makers as trainees, providing real world opportunities, mentorship, and necessary knowledge to conduct optimal scale-up of evidence-based integrated Mental Health care.
Developing a tailored implementation plan for Collaborative Care of perinatal depression care in Community Health Centers in Vietnam
Perinatal depression is a common and serious disorder, with suicide representing a major cause of maternal mortality, but few women from low and middle income countries (LMICs) receive effective treatment. Effective models of care that improve perinatal depression and support suicide prevention exist but have not yet been widely implemented in routine maternal-child care services in LMICs. We plan to use a participatory approach to systematically identify and adapt key elements of evidence based models of perinatal depression care delivery to the cultural and health services context of Can Tho, Vietnam. Simultaneous exploration of potential implementation strategies to support and sustain this model in context will be identified along with the creation of a training and implementation toolkit for this setting. Using these strategies and tools we will then carry out a pilot perinatal collaborative care study in a public health center and the prenatal care practice of the Can Tho Obstetric and Gynecologic Hospital. The results of this pilot will be used to revise and enhance the treatment model and related implementation tools. These will be used in subsequent trials of effectiveness and/or implementation broadly in the health care system of Can Tho.
Expanding mental health training and treatment in child and adolescent mental health in Vietnam
Engaged in early relationship-building with Can Tho University of Pharmacy and Medicine (CTUMP), and Can Tho Children’s Hospital (CTCH) in Can Tho, Vietnam to develop training, research, and clinical service delivery models for psychiatry and mental health in the region.
As is true throughout Southeast Asia, persons with mental illness in Vietnam suffer from stigmatization and under-resourced care. But things are changing. Vietnam is experiencing rapid economic expansion and, concurrently, attitudes about caring for individuals with mental illness are shifting. There is a developing awareness of children’s and adolescents’ mental health needs, and illness. UW faculty are working with the leadership at CTMUP to expand its capacity to provide mental health care in general psychiatry and in pediatrics, assisting community psychiatrists to update their knowledge, and guiding the leadership at the new Children’s Hospital to develop mental health programs.
