Study of Effectiveness and Implementation of a Mental Health Intervention With Conflict-affected Communities in Ukraine

Summary

This project aims to contribute to the development of a community mental health care system while directly serving the conflict affected population in east Ukraine. This project is being supported by USAID's Victims of Torture Fund. In the Spring of 2015, the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Mental Health Research Group (AMHR) was invited to make a site visit to Ukraine with USAID to make an initial assessment of current mental health problems, service capacities, and treatment need. AMHR and USAID were requested by community-based partners to provide training and support in evidence based trauma treatment for people affected by war and displacement. Extensive conflict within the borders of Ukraine is a new experience for most Ukrainians, and local psychologists and psychotherapists were not prepared for wide-spread need or trained in appropriate methods of treatment for affected populations. JHU and USAID began activities in Ukraine in June 2015 and have identified the counseling intervention, Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA), as appropriate and relevant for this context. Community providers from the three trial sites (Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhia) have been trained in CETA as counselors and local supervisors.

An ongoing training and supervision model (Apprenticeship Model) is being implemented in the three study sites. These three sites contain significant numbers of military veterans (demobilized soldiers from the ongoing conflict) and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Adult IDPs and Veterans from the three study sites will be recruited and screened to identify those with elevated depression and/or posttraumatic stress symptoms and impaired functioning. This study will be conducted as a 3-armed randomized controlled trial. This study will test to see if both the long and a short version of CETA are effective compared to a wait-control condition.

Conditions

• Depression
• PostTraumatic Stress Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

CETA (Common Elements Treatment Approach)

The Common Elements Treatment Approach, or CETA, is a transdiagnostic psychotherapy based on cognitive behavioral elements for mood, anxiety and trauma related problems. CETA is based on the fact that most evidence-based mental health treatments (EBTs) consist of similar components. The objective of CETA is to provide a single training in a range of therapy components that are similar across EBTs and to then teach counselors how to design a specific course of treatment for each client based on the client's presenting problems.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

  collaborator FED

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Paul Bolton, MBBS · Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

• Laura Murray, PhD · Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-01-31

Primary Completion

2018-11-30

Completion

2019-04-19

Countries

• Ukraine

Study Locations