Pre-and-post Study With a Nested Randomized Trial of Digital Training to Teach Problem-solving Counselling in India

PRIDE has been implemented in India to address the scarcity of evidence- based interventions for common adolescent mental health problems nationally and in low-resource settings more widely (Michelson et al., 2020). The goal is to develop and evaluate a suite of scalable, transdiagnostic psychological interventions (i.e., suitable for a variety of mental health presentations) that can be delivered by non-specialist ('lay') counsellors in resource-poor school settings.

There is a major knowledge gap concerning how to build capacity outside of specialist health settings and how to motivate and support non-specialists through structured capacity building activities in absence of adequate specialist trainers.

Hence, the aim of the current study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a digital training for non-specialists to improve their competency in delivering an evidence-based adolescent mental health intervention.

SIGNIFICANCE:

The health care system in India faces a number of key challenges: (1) poor quality and inadequately resourced primary health care; (2) low numbers and unequally distributed skilled human resources; (3) a large, unregulated, private sector; (4) low public spending on health leading to high levels of out of pocket expenditure; (5) fragmented health information systems; (6) irrational use and spiralling costs of drugs and technology; and (7) weak governance and accountability.

The current study will address the dearth of evidence on workforce development strategies necessary to scale-up evidence-based adolescent mental health interventions in low-resource settings.