MISC-CBO to Improve the Mental Health of OVC in South Africa

Summary

The goal of this cluster randomized control clinical trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers for Community-based Organizations (MISC-CBO) in reducing mental health problems in orphan and vulnerable children in South Africa.

Aim 1 will evaluate the direct effects of MISC-CBO on video-coded CBO caseworker caregiving quality (affiliation and attachment) and children's mental health outcomes over a 24 month period. 24 CBOs (360 children and 72 caseworkers) will be recruited using existing Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) partner (Childline) in two districts in the Free State, South Africa (SA). CBOs will be randomly assigned to receive either one year of bi-weekly MISC-CBO or Treatment as Usual (TAU). The investigators hypothesize that MISC-CBO will be associated with comparative increases in caseworker caregiving quality and reductions in mental health problems in Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC).

Aim 2a,will test the hypothesis that caregiving quality at end-of-intervention (12 months) accounts for intervention effects on child mental health at 18 and 24 months. Aim 2b will evaluate the moderating effects of orphan status and the quality of the home environment, expecting that OVC who are maternal and double orphans, and from impoverished home environments will show reduced response to intervention compared to children without these risk factors.

Aim 3a will use World Health Organization metrics to test the hypothesis that MISC-CBO is cost-effective in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted. Aim 3b will use qualitative methodology to test the hypothesis that community stakeholders deem the climate favorable and ready for the implementation of MISC-CBO, and that additional barriers and facilitators for scale-up and implementation will be identified.

The proposed work extends the investigators' formative work to now fully test the real-world effectiveness, mechanisms of action, cost-effectiveness and implementation readiness of MISC-CBO during the critical developmental window of at-risk children aging into adolescence, consistent with National Institute of Mental Health's strategic objectives.

Conditions

• Mental Disorder, Child

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers (MISC)

MISC-CBO is a year-long semi-structured, manualized video-feedback caregiver intervention that targets key components in caregiver-child interactions known to improve caregiving quality and child outcomes. These components include emotional and cognitive components shown to improve socio-emotional and cognitive developmental outcomes in children.

BEHAVIORAL

Treatment as Usual

Treatment as Usual includes general support for children in homework and nutrition.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Houston

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

7 Years

Max Age

11 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-06-12

Primary Completion

2026-07-01

Completion

2026-07-01

Countries

• South Africa

Study Locations