Intervention Effectiveness in Improving Psychosocial and Economic Well-being of Sexual Violence Survivors in DRC

Summary

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has become synonymous with sexual violence by armed groups within the last 2 decades. Reportedly, tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped, sexually assaulted, attacked and abducted in the Eastern Provinces including North and South Kivu, targeted by armed groups with unparalleled levels of brutality.

Access to services in North and South Kivu-both emergency and longer term care-remains a major challenge. Limited services as well as the potential stigma of seeking services mean that many survivors have never received adequate care. Results of a preliminary study found many survivors have substantially reduced ability to function, including reduced ability to perform basic tasks and activities related to earning, self care, caring for family, and contributing to their communities. These survivors also describe high rates of mental health and social problems including mood disorders, anxiety, withdrawal, and stigmatization and rejection by family and community.

While social and economic development in conflict affected areas like DRC relies on populations who are ready and able to work, the psychological effects of conflict may mean that a percentage of the population living in these low-resource areas are less able to engage in economic opportunities even when they are available. However, there is little data on the best strategy to deal with this.

This study will be run as two parallel randomized impact evaluations to investigate the impacts of two different intervention programs to be implemented as part of standard programming of the collaborating NGO. The first study will focus on the impact of IRC's social-economic intervention, Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) compared to a wait-control sample. The VSLA impact evaluation study will be conducted in communities served by 9 community-based organization (CBO) partners. The second study will focus on the impact of a mental health intervention, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) compared to a wait-control sample. The CPT impact evaluation study will be conducted in communities serviced by NGO partners currently providing psychosocial support. As an exploratory investigation, the researchers will follow the CPT program with the VSLA program to look at the effect of receiving a mental health intervention prior to the VSLA on rates of retention and impact.

Conditions

• Depression
• Anxiety
• PTSD

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Treatment as usual

Standard psychosocial counseling

BEHAVIORAL

Voluntary Savings/Loans Assoc

economic intervention for group savings and loans

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive Processing Therapy

group 12 session intervention

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Judith Bass, PhD · Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

90 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2010-10-31

Primary Completion

2012-08-31

Completion

2013-07-31

Countries

• Democratic Republic of the Congo

Study Locations