Promoting wellbeing and empowerment via Youth First: Exploring psychosocial outcomes of a school-based resilience intervention in Bihar, India.

Youth worldwide are struggling with increased mental health concerns. As youth in low- and middle-income countries make up more than 20% of the world's population, finding ways to improve their psychosocial wellbeing is crucial. CorStone's Youth First program is a school-based psychosocial resilience program that seeks to improve the mental, physical, social, and educational wellbeing of early adolescents.

A psychosocial resilience curriculum provides the "missing piece" to boost adolescent physical health: A randomized controlled trial of Girls First in India.

Rationale And Objectives: Despite a recent proliferation of interventions to improve health, education, and livelihoods for girls in low and middle income countries, psychosocial wellbeing has been neglected. This oversight is particularly problematic as attending to psychosocial development may be important not only for psychosocial but also physical wellbeing. This study examines the physical health effects of Girls First, a combined psychosocial (Girls First Resilience Curriculum [RC]) and adolescent physical health (Girls First Health Curriculum [HC]) intervention (RC + HC) versus its individual components (i.

Building psychosocial assets and wellbeing among adolescent girls: A randomized controlled trial.

We conducted a randomized controlled trial of a 5-month resilience-based program (Girls First Resilience Curriculum or RC) among 2308 rural adolescent girls at 57 government schools in Bihar, India. Local women with at least a 10th grade education served as group facilitators. Girls receiving RC improved more (vs.

Fostering emotional, social, physical and educational wellbeing in rural India: the methods of a multi-arm randomized controlled trial of Girls First.

Background: There are 600 million girls in low and middle income countries (LMICs), many of whom are at great risk for poor health and education. There is thus great need for programs that can effectively improve wellbeing for these girls. Although many interventions have been developed to address these issues, most focus on health and education without integrating attention to social and emotional factors.

The impact of a lay counselor led collaborative care intervention for common mental disorders in public and private primary care: a qualitative evaluation nested in the MANAS trial in Goa, India.

The MANAS trial evaluated the effectiveness of a lay counselor led collaborative stepped care intervention for Common Mental Disorders (CMD) in public and private sector primary care settings in Goa, India. This paper describes the qualitative findings of the experience of the intervention and its impact on health and psychosocial outcomes. Twenty four primary care facilities (12 public and private each) were randomized to provide either collaborative stepped care (CSC) or enhanced usual care (EUC) to adults who screen positive for CMDs.

The explanatory models of depression and anxiety in primary care: a qualitative study from India.

Background: The biggest barrier to treatment of common mental disorders in primary care settings is low recognition among health care providers. This study attempts to explore the explanatory models of common mental disorders (CMD) with the goal of identifying how they could help in improving the recognition, leading to effective treatment in primary care.

Results: The paper describes findings of a cross sectional qualitative study nested within a large randomized controlled trial (the Manas trial).

The acceptability, feasibility and impact of a lay health counsellor delivered health promoting schools programme in India: a case study evaluation.

Background: Studies in resource-limited settings have shown that there are constraints to the use of teachers, peers or health professionals to deliver school health promotion interventions. School health programmes delivered by trained lay health counsellors could offer a cost-effective alternative. This paper presents a case study of a multi-component school health promotion intervention in India that was delivered by lay school health counsellors, who possessed neither formal educational nor health provider qualifications.

The integration of the treatment for common mental disorders in primary care: experiences of health care providers in the MANAS trial in Goa, India.

Background: The MANAS trial reported that a Lay Health Counsellor (LHC) led collaborative stepped care intervention (the "MANAS intervention") for Common Mental Disorders (CMD) was effective in public sector primary care clinics but private sector General Practitioners (GPs) did as well with or without the additional counsellor. This paper aims to describe the experiences of integrating the MANAS intervention in primary care.

Methods: Qualitative semi-structured interviews with key members (n = 119) of the primary health care teams upon completion of the trial and additional interviews with control arm GPs upon completion of the outcome analyses which revealed non-inferiority of this arm.

The acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of a population-based intervention to promote youth health: an exploratory study in Goa, India.

Purpose: To evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of a population-based intervention to promote health of youth (age: 16-24 years) in Goa.

Methods: Two pairs of urban and rural communities were selected; one of each was randomly assigned to receive a multi-component intervention and the other wait-listed. The intervention comprised educational institution-based peer education and teacher training (in the urban community), community peer education, and health information materials.

HIV prevention while the bulldozers roll: exploring the effect of the demolition of Goa's red-light area.

Interventions targeting sex-workers are pivotal to HIV prevention in India. Community mobilisation is considered by the National AIDS Control Programme to be an integral component of this strategy. Nevertheless societal factors, and specifically policy and legislation around sex-work, are potential barriers to widespread collectivisation and empowerment of sex-workers.

Integrating evidence-based treatments for common mental disorders in routine primary care: feasibility and acceptability of the MANAS intervention in Goa, India.

Common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, pose a major public health burden in developing countries. Although these disorders are thought to be best managed in primary care settings, there is a dearth of evidence about how this can be achieved in low resource settings. The MANAS project is an attempt to integrate an evidence based package of treatments into routine public and private primary care settings in Goa, India.

The psychological and social contexts of complaints of abnormal vaginal discharge: a study of illness narratives in India.

Objective: Epidemiological studies have reported strong associations between psychosocial adversity and complaints of abnormal vaginal discharge (AVD) in South Asia. We aimed to explore the mechanism of these associations through qualitative research.

Method: We carried out serial in-depth interviews with 42 married women with the complaint of AVD who were purposively selected from a sample of 2494 women recruited into a population-based cohort study in Goa, India.

Non-traditional lifestyles and prevalence of mental disorders in adolescents in Goa, India.

Background: Adolescents comprise a fifth of the population of India, but there is little research on their mental health. We conducted an epidemiological study in the state of Goa to describe the current prevalence of mental disorders and its correlates among adolescents aged between 12 and 16 years.

Aims: To estimate the prevalence and correlates of mental disorders in adolescents.

The explanatory models of depression in low income countries: listening to women in India.

Introduction: Women, and persons facing social and economic disadvantage, are at greater risk for depressive disorders. Our objective was to describe the explanatory models of illness in depressed women, in particular, their idioms of distress, and their views of their social circumstances and how this related to their illness.

Method: We carried out a qualitative investigation nested in a population based cohort study of women's mental and reproductive health in Goa, India.

Sex, studies or strife? What to integrate in adolescent health services.

If health services for adolescents are to be successfully integrated into the existing health care system, they will need to reach out to meet the needs that adolescents themselves perceive as salient. This paper describes a study aiming to elicit the needs of adolescents in higher secondary schools in Goa, India, in 1999-2000. The objective was to generate information which could guide the development of adolescent-friendly health services by integrating the health needs identified by adolescents themselves.

Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of drug and psychological treatments for common mental disorders in general health care in Goa, India: a randomised, controlled trial.

Background: Common mental disorders are associated with substantial morbidity and disability in developing countries, but there are no data for efficacy of treatment. We aimed to assess the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of antidepressant and psychological treatment for common mental disorders in general health-care settings.

Method: We did a randomised, placebo-controlled trial (double-blind for the antidepressant group) in general outpatient clinics in two district hospitals in Goa, India.