Psycho-social Support on Mental Health and Hope of Adolescents Affected by Earthquake in Nepal
Condition: Mental Health Issue (E.G., Depression, Psychosis, Personality Disorder, Substance Abuse)
MeSH terms: Substance-Related Disorders; Personality Disorders
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Adolescents are prone to mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
      and depression which could become worse in the aftermath of disasters. However, hope can help
      adolescents cope with the challenges better. For resource poor disaster prone settings,
      school teachers can provide timely psycho-social support that could improve mental health and
      hope among adolescents.

      Nepal is a disaster prone country that faced a devastating earthquake in 2015 that claimed
      thousands of lives and left many homeless which could have affected the mental health of
      adolescents.This study was conducted in schools of Dhading, a severely earthquake affected
      district and schools of Myagdi, a least affected district by earthquake in Nepal. The
      intervention focused on training school teachers on psycho-social support for adolescents.
    

Detailed description: 
      Adolescents are prone to mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
      and depression which could become worse in the aftermath of disasters. However, some
      adolescents can have better hope that helps them to cope with the challenges following
      adverse events such as earthquake.

      Nepal is a low income and disaster prone country that ranks 11th for earthquake risks
      globally. In April 2015, the country faced a devastating earthquake of 7.8 Magnitude that
      killed thousands of people. Fourteen out of seventy five districts in Nepal were declared as
      severely affected districts.

      However, the adolescents may not have received enough psychosocial support after the
      earthquake. The damage caused by earthquake was further worsened by the political instability
      in the country leading to delay in reconstruction work in earthquake-affected areas.
      Difficult circumstances following the earthquake could have affected the mental of
      adolescents negatively. However, the evidence on mental health status of adolescents
      following massive disaster such as earthquake remains inadequate.

      For resource poor and disaster prone settings such as Nepal, school teachers can provide
      timely psychosocial support that could improve mental health and hope among adolescents.
      School based teacher mediated interventions could be more sustainable and feasible in the
      complex scenario of post-disaster settings. However, evidence on teacher mediated
      interventions in low resource disaster settings remain inadequate.

      The objectives of this study were to assess mental health and level of hope among the
      adolescents in selected districts and examine the effect of school teachers' training on
      psychosocial support on mental health and hope among the adolescents.

      The intervention for this study was schoolteachers' training on psycho-social support. A
      clinical psychologist provided 2-day training on psycho-social support for 22 schoolteachers
      (2 teachers from each intervention school). The training guidelines were adapted from the
      United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on psycho-social support for education in
      emergencies. The training provided basic skills to the schoolteachers so that they will be
      able to provide psycho-social support for children affected. The lesson learned from the
      training was intended to be applied by the school teachers in their everyday regular school
      activities. A follow up study was conducted at 6 months follow up among the adolescents to
      assess the change in their mental health status and hope.
    

Intervention name(s): Psychosocial support training for school teachers
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The intervention for this study was schoolteachers' training on psychosocial support.A clinical psychologist provided 2-day training (a total of 16 hours) training on psychosocial support for the schoolteachers
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: adolescent; mental health; hope; psycho-social support; school teachers; earthquake