Description
In Nigeria, there is a dearth of mental healthcare professionals, particularly in settings like the Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps where the burden of mental health illness among children and adolescents is high. Hence, the need for a task-shifting approach where lay community counsellors deliver therapy. This study assessed the effectiveness of task-shifting-based mental health interventions for young people in IDP camps in Nigeria. A one-group pre-test post-test design was utilized and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire was used to assess generalized anxiety disorder among 83 adolescents and young IDPs who completed the 18 sessions of group therapy in the funded study which was carried out in Durumi and New Kuchingoro IDP camps in Nigeria between April 1, 2021 and May 30, 2023. The 18 sessions were delivered by trained community mental health therapist who were trained for 8 weeks and used the curriculum on the SIMBIHealth mobile application to deliver the intervention. Ethical clearance was obtained (assent was obtained for those less than 18 years). The t-test analysis revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the average mean score of 3.53 for the generalized anxiety disorder at the baseline assessment (9.05) and end-line assessment (5.52) (p<0.001). The percentage of people that had clinically significant generalized anxiety disorder at the baseline reduced from 100% at baseline to 39.8% at endline. Our study finds that leveraging a community-led and task-shifting service delivery approach advances mental health equity especially in underserved communities in low- and middle-income countries.
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