Testing the Shamiri Intervention and Its Components With Kenyan Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Outcomes of a Universal, 5-Arm Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Mental health problems are prevalent among African adolescents, but professional treatment capacity is limited. Shamiri, an efficient lay provider-delivered intervention, has significantly reduced depression and anxiety symptoms in previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs). This trial investigated effects of the full Shamiri intervention and its components (growth-only, gratitude-only, and values-only) against a study skills control.

Group-based psychoeducational workshop for parents in Kenya: findings from a pilot study.

Introduction: Low levels of mental health literacy amongst parents can have negative effects on youth mental wellbeing and help-seeking behaviors. Here, we explored the impact of a brief psychoeducational workshop on improving parent mental health literacy and family relationships in Kibera, a low-resource high-risk setting in Nairobi, Kenya.

Methods: The workshop was designed to address this issue, and it was delivered by trained facilitators to small groups of parents ( = 72).

The network approach: A path to decolonize mental health care.

The violent colonial history of psychiatry in Africa prevents individuals from help-seeking. Because of this history, mental health care is now stigmatized, and clinical research, practice, and policy fail to capture the salient features of distress across African communities. If we are to transform mental health care for all, we must adopt decolonizing frameworks to ensure mental health research, practice, and policy are enacted in a manner that is ethical, democratic, critical, and serves the needs of local communities.

Depression and anxiety symptoms amongst kenyan adolescents: Psychometric Properties, Prevalence Rates and Associations with Psychosocial Wellbeing and Sociodemographic factors.

This study assessed the psychometric properties of standard Western-derived instruments, the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms, and their associations with sociodemographic and wellbeing variables in a large sample of Kenyan adolescents. Self-report measures of depression (PHQ-8) and anxiety (GAD-7) symptoms, social support, gratitude, happiness, optimism, and perceived control were administered to 2,192 Kenyan youths (57.57% female) aged 12-19.

Long-term health outcomes of adolescent character strength interventions: 3- to 4-year outcomes of three randomized controlled trials of the Shamiri program.

Background: Adolescents in low- and middle-income countries in need of mental health care often do not receive it due to stigma, cost, and lack of mental health professionals. Culturally appropriate, brief, and low-cost interventions delivered by lay-providers can help overcome these barriers and appear effective at reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety until several months post-intervention. However, little is known about whether these interventions may have long-term effects on health, mental health, social, or academic outcomes.

Single-session digital intervention for adolescent depression, anxiety, and well-being: Outcomes of a randomized controlled trial with Kenyan adolescents.

Background: Adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms are prevalent in sub-Saharan African countries, yet treatment options are scarce, and stigma limits help-seeking. Brief, computerized single-session interventions (SSIs) that contain empirically supported stigma-reducing elements may help expand access to treatment. We developed and evaluated such an intervention for Kenyan adolescents.