SMART Africa (Strengthening Mental Health Research and Training)

Summary

The objective of this research study is to examine the implementation of and outcomes associated with an evidence-based practice (EBP), specifically Multiple Family Group (MFG) targeting youth disruptive behavior challenges and success, through a scale up intervention study in Uganda, and two pilot studies that will be conducted in Kenya and Ghana.

Conditions

• Comparison Group
• Multiple Family Groups by Parent Peers
• Multiple Family Groups by Community Health Workers

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

MFG

The MFG is a series of weekly meetings guided by a protocol.Over the course of 16 weeks, groups are held weekly and are facilitated by trained and supervised group leaders (in this case either parent peers or community health outreach workers). Groups can consist of up to 20 families involving adult caregivers and all children over six years of age in the family. The protocols have been designed to provide opportunities during each session to directly apply content to the realities of family life, emergent cultural and values perspectives, as well as tailor messages to age of child. Redundancy for missed appointments and opportunities for reinforcement is built in. We aim for families to attend at least 8 meetings or more (out of 16 sessions in total), as findings suggests this dose is needed to reduce child conduct problems and the majority of families reach this goal.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Ghana

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Nairobi

  collaborator OTHER

• Reach the Youth Uganda

  collaborator OTHER

• New York University

  collaborator OTHER

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

  collaborator NIH

• Washington University School of Medicine

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Mary McKay, PhD · Washington University School of Medicine

• Fred Ssewamala, PhD · Washington University School of Medicine

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

8 Years

Max Age

99 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-10-06

Primary Completion

2021-05-31

Completion

2021-05-31

Countries

• United States
• Ghana
• Kenya
• Uganda

Study Locations