Enhancing Torture Survivor Mental Health Services

This project is the latest in a series of awards we have received from USAID/Victims of Torture Fund. The specific objectives are:

1. To enhance the field of torture and trauma treatment by ongoing research on the needs of torture and trauma-affected populations, the effectiveness of treatment and rehabilitation methods, and on requirements for successful expansion and maintenance of services for these same populations. This will be based on the Design, Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation (DIME) approach to programming and research and tools for Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) research developed during this and previous USAID/VOT awards.
2. To promote the use of effective and sustainable mental health services to torture and trauma-affected populations in diverse regions.
3. To transfer knowledge and capacity to service organizations and local researchers in the provision of effective interventions. This includes training and supervision of treatments based on the Apprenticeship Model of capacity building developed and used under previous USAID/VOT awards.
4. To transfer capacity in program-relevant research methods, including identifying best practice and enhancing program delivery, based on the DIME and D&I research manuals and materials.

The current award supports JHU’s activities in Ukraine and Democratic Republic of Congo, in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, and is a partner to the Scale Up project in Myanmar.

• In Ukraine we are working in Kyiv, Zaporizhia, and Kharkiv training local providers in the use of the CETA among internally displaced persons and war veterans. This activity includes a randomized controlled trial comparing brief and full versions of CETA to determine if the number of session scan be reduced.
• In Myanmar we are introducing a child version of CETA to the Kachin region (as part of a controlled trial) while also expanding the use of adult CETA among Kachin, Karen, and Burmese populations, in conjunction with NIMH funded scale up project.
• In Bougainville, Papua New Guinea we are working with colleagues in Bougainville and Australia to develop a mental health policy for that semi-autonomous region along with introducing and testing a model of comprehensive mental health services. These services will consist of three ‘tiers’: community based education, clinic-based treatment of common mental disorders, and hospital based treatment of severe disorders, with appropriate referral between levels.
• In the Democratic Republic of Congo we are conducting long term follow up on the impact of the Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) intervention previously introduced and evaluated as part of a randomized controlled trial with USAID/VOT support.

Projects in Myanmar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, and Bougainville are being implemented in collaboration with the University of Washington in Seattle with respect to clinical training and research.