Mental health outcomes, literacy and service provision in low- and middle-income settings: a systematic review of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the prevalence of mental health issues could be greater than in other low-income and middle-income countries because of major risk factors related to armed conflicts and poverty. Given that mental health is an essential component of health, it is surprising that no systematic evaluation of mental health in the DRC has yet been undertaken. This study aims to undertake the first systematic review of mental health literacy and service provision in the DRC, to bridge this gap and inform those who need to develop an evidence base. This could support policymakers in tackling the issues related to limited mental health systems and service provision in DRC. Following Cochrane and PRISMA guidelines, a systematic (Web of Science, Medline, Public Health, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar) search was conducted (January 2000 and August 2023). Combinations of key blocks of terms were used in the search such as DRC, war zone, mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, sexual violence, war trauma, resilience, mental health systems and service provision. We followed additional sources from reference lists of included studies. Screening was completed in two stages: title and abstract search, and full-text screening for relevance and quality. Overall, 50 studies were included in the review; the majority of studies (n = 31) were conducted in the Eastern region of the DRC, a region devastated by war and sexual violence. Different instruments were used to measure participants' mental health such as the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL-25), The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9); General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), and Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS). Our study found that wartime sexual violence and extreme poverty are highly traumatic, and cause multiple, long-term mental health difficulties. We found that depression, anxiety, and PTSD were the most common problems in the DRC. Psychosocial interventions such as group therapy, family support, and socio-economic support were effective in reducing anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms. This systematic review calls attention to the need to support sexual violence survivors and many other Congolese people affected by traumatic events. This review also highlights the need for validating culturally appropriate measures, and the need for well-designed controlled intervention studies in low-income settings such as the DRC. Better public mental health systems and service provision could help to improve community cohesion, human resilience, and mental wellbeing. There is also an urgent need to address wider social issues such as poverty, stigma, and gender inequality in the DRC.

Participatory mental health interventions in low-income and middle-income countries: a realist review protocol.

INTRODUCTION: The launch of the Movement for Global Mental Health brought long-standing calls for improved mental health interventions in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) to centre stage. Within the movement, the participation of communities and people with lived experience of mental health problems is argued as essential to successful interventions. However, there remains a lack of conceptual clarity around 'participation' in mental health interventions with the specific elements of participation rarely articulated. Our review responds to this gap by exploring how 'participation' is applied, what it means and what key mechanisms contribute to change in participatory interventions for mental health in LMICs. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A realist review methodology will be used to identify the different contexts that trigger mechanisms of change, and the resulting outcomes related to the development and implementation of participatory mental health interventions, that is: what makes participation work in mental health interventions in LMICs and why? We augment our search with primary data collection in communities who are the targets of global mental health initiatives to inform the production of a programme theory on participation for mental health in LMICs. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval for focus group discussions (FGDs) was obtained in each country involved. FGDs will be conducted in line with WHO safety guidance during the COVID-19 crisis. The full review will be published in an academic journal, with further papers providing an in-depth analysis on community perspectives on participation in mental health. The project findings will also be shared on a website, in webinars and an online workshop.

Intensive Interaction and discourses of personhood: A focus group study with dementia caregivers.

INTRODUCTION: Societal discourses of dementia are medicalised and dehumanising. This leads to a social problem: the loss of personhood in dementia care. The communication technique Intensive Interaction, however, honours personhood. The current study aimed to explore how paid caregivers of people with dementia enact societal discourses of dementia, with and without the context of Intensive Interaction. This was to explore ways to address the loss of personhood in dementia care. METHOD: Paid caregivers from two residential care homes attended an Intensive Interaction training day. Caregivers participated in focus groups before and after training. Transcripts of the focus groups were analysed with Critical Discourse Analysis, an approach which relates discourse to social power. RESULTS: Before Intensive Interaction training, carers accessed medical discourses of loss, non-communication and lack of personhood. 'Being with' people with dementia was framed as separate to paid work. After training, caregivers accessed discourses of communication and personhood. Intensive Interaction reframed 'being with' people with dementia as part of 'doing work'. Family caregivers were largely absent from discourses. Care home hierarchies and the industrialisation of care were barriers towards honouring personhood. CONCLUSIONS: Medical discourses of dementia reinforce a status quo whereby interpersonal interactions are devalued in dementia care, and professional 'knowledge' (thereby professional power) is privileged over relationships. Intensive Interaction may enable paid caregivers to access person-centred discourses and related practices. However, this requires support from management, organisational structures, and wider society. More research is needed to identify ways to involve families in residential care and to explore the effects of using Intensive Interaction in practice.