Abstract
Background: Uganda has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates and poor mental health services. Children and adolescents in communities with persistent poverty, disease (including HIV/AIDS), and violence, are more likely to suffer from chronic mental health problems. Combined, these characteristics negatively impact communities' response to HIV and mental health beginning with children, adolescents, and young adults. Yet, there is limited research capacity in child and adolescent mental health (CAMH), especially in the HIV/AIDS context in Uganda. Hence, this NIH-funded research training program aims to: (1) train three cohorts of early-career investigators at universities or research institutions in Uganda; (2) connect fellows with committed mentors; and (3) define key factors for successful mentorship and training of new investigators.Methods: CHILD-GRF is a multi-component program that engages selected young investigators in year-round activities for 3 years. Paired with mentors from Washington University in St. Louis and academic institutions in Uganda, fellows participate in a 6-week intensive summer training each year. Year 1 focuses on didactic learning and mentorship. In Year 2, fellows design and conduct their pilot study. Year 3 is devoted to presenting pilot study findings, manuscript preparation/ submission and extramural grant writing.Discussion: CHILD-GRF seeks to provide a solid foundation for the development and implementation of evidence-based HIV prevention and mental health interventions for youth and families impacted by HIV/AIDS. By producing a sustainable network of well-trained individuals in key research institutions, this program contributes to improving CAMH and HIV prevention efforts, both of which have public health implications.
Highlights
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains the world’s most affected region in the HIV epidemic, home to 71% of people living with HIV worldwide [1]
We describe the NIH-funded “Child Mental Health in HIVimpacted Low-resource settings in Developing countries: Global Research Fellowship” (CHILD-GRF) program (D43TW011541) that provides state-of-the-art methods training, mentoring, and “hands-on” research experience to promising early career research scholars in Uganda committed to research careers focused on addressing the serious child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) burden in the context of HIV/AIDS
Course correction: Modify the training needs based on Training Advisory Committee (TAC) recommendations
Summary
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains the world’s most affected region in the HIV epidemic, home to 71% of people living with HIV worldwide [1]. Uganda is a SSA country with one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates and poor mental health services [1]. Uganda reports poor youth mental health services, a dearth of child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) researchers, community violence, and pervasive poverty [4,5,6,7]. Children and adolescents in communities with persistent poverty, disease (including HIV/AIDS), and violence, are more likely to suffer from chronic mental health problems. There is limited research capacity in child and adolescent mental health (CAMH), especially in the HIV/AIDS context in Uganda. Studies of AIDS-affected Ugandan adolescents living in poverty show high rates of depression [26,27,28], anxiety, learning problems [29, 30], and risky sexual behaviors [31, 32]. The CHILD-GRF offers fellows the opportunity to study these issues
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