We at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS) have been officially granted a substantially large grant under the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) U19 Applications on African Regional Research Partnerships on Scaling Up Child Mental Health EBPs. The start date is May 15, 2016 for 5 (Five) years!
The project will utilize a multi-component, comprehensive action approach, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), to address service and research gaps by enhancing the capacity of African investigators, government officials, and NGOs to develop, implement, rigorously examine and scale up evidence-based behavioral health services for children. We have convened a trans-disciplinary team of investigators and stakeholders with expertise in population health, implementation and dissemination research, social epidemiology, disparities research, community-based participatory research, health and education policy, public health, psychiatry, social work, biostatistics and health economics.
The US-based team consists of scientific leaders in child mental health services and implementation science, and investigators with current NIH-funded studies and capacity building programs set across Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa investigators are drawn from leading academic institutions, including Makerere University, Rakai Health Sciences Program (Uganda), University of Ghana, University of Nairobi (Kenya) and University of KwaZulu-Natal and University of Cape Town. NGOs with multi-country presence, REPSSI (Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative), Health Right International, TPO, Child Fund, have expressed strong commitment to supporting the goals of the program (code-named ACCCR). Specific capacity building expertise in Child EBPs and implementation science will be drawn from the African continent via a partnership with University of KwaZulu Natal investigators, Drs. Petersen and Bhana, and REPSSI.
The lead Director (Administrative Core Lead) is Prof Mary M. McKay of NYU Silver School of Social Work, McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy & Research (NYU McSilver), with Prof. Edward K. Kirumira PI Subcontract-Admin Core and Co-Chair African Policy Research Board (from Makerere University); Prof. Richard Adanu PI Subcontract-Admin Core and Co-Chair African Policy Research Board (from the University of Ghana School of Public Health; Anne Wanjiro Mbwayo PI Subcontract-Admin Core (from the University of Nairobi; and Arvin Bhana PI Subcontract-Capacity Building Lead (from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Only two applications of the many that were submitted worldwide have been funded in this round of call!
The very immediate benefit to us at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences is that the “First Annual Conference on Child Behavioral Health In Sub-Saharan Africa” funded under this project will be held in Kampala, July 12-13, 2016. On the second day there will be a Mentors and Fellows meeting that should be of particular interest to our early career researchers. The project will cover the participation costs for the two days. Over the five years many researchers in the College will be mentored and also be given sub-grants or work on studies supported under the U19 grant.
Related Link: http://mcsilver.nyu.edu/ssaconference