Impact of the Brave Heart mental health intervention on the prevalence and severity of depression among young internally displaced persons in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

IntroductionDepression is prevalent among internally displaced persons (IDPs). Yet, mental health services are scarce among IDPs in low-and-middle-income countries. This study assessed the effectiveness of a task-shifting based mental health intervention on the severity of depressive symptoms among young IDPs in Northern Nigeria. MethodsThis was quasi-experimental study design (one-group pre-test and post-test design). The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to assess the severity of Depression prior (and after) to the program implementation and 100 young IDPs aged 13–24 years who had mild to moderate Depression were the study participants. The Brave Heart intervention adopted a task-shifting approach where 20 trained community members provided mental health therapy sessions to the participants. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 26. Paired t-test was used to analyze the difference between the baseline and endline scores (p < 0.001). ResultsOut of the 83 young IDPs that completed the post-test assessment in this study, some (43.4%) were aged 20–24 years and 51.8% of them were males. There was a significant difference between the depression baseline and endline mean scores across the different age groups (p < 0.001), gender (p < 0.001), and level of education (p < 0.001). There was a significant difference between the overall depression mean score at the baseline and end-line levels (p = 0.001). ConclusionThe Brave Heart intervention was effective in reducing the severity of depression among young people living in IDP camps. There is a need for health stakeholders to adopt this program in other hard-to-reach communities where mental health services are scarce.