Scaling up care for perinatal depression for improved maternal and infant health (SPECTRA): protocol of a hybrid implementation study of the impact of a cascade training of primary maternal care providers in Nigeria.

Background: The large treatment gap for mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) necessitates task-sharing approaches in scaling up care for mental disorders. Previous work have shown that primary health care workers (PHCW) can be trained to recognize and respond to common mental disorders but there are lingering questions around sustainable implementation and scale-up in real world settings.

Method: This project is a hybrid implementation-effectiveness study guided by the Replicating Effective Programmes Framework.