Theory-Driven, Multi-Stage Process to Develop a Culturally-Informed Anti-Stigma Intervention for Pregnant Women Living with HIV in Botswana.

Background and Objectives: Despite a well-established universal HIV diagnosis and treatment program, Botswana continues to face a high HIV prevalence, in large part due to persistent stigma, which particularly affects pregnant women and interferes with healthcare engagement. Tackling stigma as a fundamental cause of HIV disparities is an important but understudied aspect of current HIV interventions. Our multinational and multicultural team used a theory-driven, multi-stage iterative process to develop measures and interventions to first identify and then target the most culturally-salient aspects of stigma for mothers living with HIV in Botswana. This methodology report examines the stage-by-stage application of the "What Matters Most" (WMM) theory and lessons learned, sharing a replicable template for developing culturally-shaped anti-stigma interventions. Methods: First, we conducted initial qualitative work based on the WMM theory to identify key structural and cultural factors shaping stigma for women living with HIV in Botswana. Second, we developed a psychometrically validated scale measuring how "what matters most" contributes to and protects against stigma for this population. Third, we designed an anti-stigma intervention, "Mothers Moving towards Empowerment" (MME), centered on the local values identified using WMM theory that underly empowerment and motherhood by adapting a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-informed, group-based, and peer-co-led anti-stigma intervention specifically for pregnant women living with HIV. Fourth, we conducted a pilot study of MME in which participants were allocated to two trial arms: intervention or treatment-as-usual control. Results: Our qualitative research identified that bearing and caring for children are capabilities essential to the concept of respected womanhood, which can be threatened by a real or perceived HIV diagnosis. These values informed the development and validation of a scale to measure these culturally-salient aspects of stigma for women living with HIV in Botswana. These findings further informed our intervention adaptation and pilot evaluation, in which the intervention group showed significant decreases in HIV stigma and depressive symptoms compared to the control group. Participants reported overcoming reluctance to disclose their HIV status to family, leading to improved social support. Conclusion and Global Health Implications: Previous studies have not utilized culturally-based approaches to assess, resist, and intervene with HIV-related stigma. By applying WMM in each stage, we identified cultural and gendered differences that enabled participants to resist HIV stigma. Focusing on these capabilities that enable full personhood, we developed an effective culturally-tailored anti-stigma intervention for pregnant women living with HIV in Botswana. This theory-driven, multi-stage approach can be replicated to achieve stigma reduction for other outcomes, populations, and contexts.

Barriers and facilitators to implementation of evidence-based task-sharing mental health interventions in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review using implementation science frameworks.

BACKGROUND: Task-sharing is a promising strategy to expand mental healthcare in low-resource settings, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Research on how to best implement task-sharing mental health interventions, however, is hampered by an incomplete understanding of the barriers and facilitators to their implementation. This review aims to systematically identify implementation barriers and facilitators in evidence-based task-sharing mental health interventions using an implementation science lens, organizing factors across a novel, integrated implementation science framework. METHODS: PubMed, PsychINFO, CINAHL, and Embase were used to identify English-language, peer-reviewed studies using search terms for three categories: "mental health," "task-sharing," and "LMIC." Articles were included if they: focused on mental disorders as the main outcome(s); included a task-sharing intervention using or based on an evidence-based practice; were implemented in an LMIC setting; and included assessment or data-supported analysis of barriers and facilitators. An initial conceptual model and coding framework derived from the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research and the Theoretical Domains Framework was developed and iteratively refined to create an integrated conceptual framework, the Barriers and Facilitators in Implementation of Task-Sharing Mental Health Interventions (BeFITS-MH), which specifies 37 constructs across eight domains: (I) client characteristics, (II) provider characteristics, (III) family and community factors, (IV) organizational characteristics, (V) societal factors, (VI) mental health system factors, (VII) intervention characteristics, and (VIII) stigma. RESULTS: Of the 26,935 articles screened (title and abstract), 192 articles underwent full-text review, yielding 37 articles representing 28 unique intervention studies that met the inclusion criteria. The most prevalent facilitators occur in domains that are more amenable to adaptation (i.e., the intervention and provider characteristics domains), while salient barriers occur in domains that are more challenging to modulate or intervene on-these include constructs in the client characteristics as well as the broader societal and structural levels of influence (i.e., the organizational, mental health system domains). Other notable trends include constructs in the family and community domains occurring as barriers and as facilitators roughly equally, and stigma constructs acting exclusively as barriers. CONCLUSIONS: Using the BeFITS-MH model we developed based on implementation science frameworks, this systematic review provides a comprehensive identification and organization of barriers and facilitators to evidence-based task-sharing mental health interventions in LMICs. These findings have important implications for ongoing and future implementation of this critically needed intervention strategy, including the promise of leveraging task-sharing intervention characteristics as sites of continued innovation, the importance of but relative lack of engagement with constructs in macro-level domains (e.g., organizational characteristics, stigma), and the need for more delineation of strategies for task-sharing mental health interventions that researchers and implementers can employ to enhance implementation in and across levels. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42020161357.

Systematic Review of Cultural Aspects of Stigma and Mental Illness among Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups in the United States: Implications for Interventions.

Stigma is integral to understanding mental health disparities among racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States. We conducted a systematic review to identify empirical studies on cultural aspects of mental illness stigma (public, structural, affiliative, self) among three racial and ethnic minority groups (Asian Americans, Black Americans, Latinx Americans) from 1990 to 2019, yielding 97 articles. In comparison studies (N = 25), racial and ethnic minority groups often expressed greater public and/or self-stigma than White American groups. In within-group studies (N = 65; Asian American, n = 21; Black American, n = 18; Latinx American; n = 26), which were primarily qualitative (73%), four major cultural themes emerged: 1) service barriers including access and quality (structural stigma); 2) family experiences including concealment for family's sake, fear of being a burden, and stigma extending to family (affiliative stigma); 3) lack of knowledge about mental illness and specific cultural beliefs (public stigma); and 4) negative emotional responses and coping (self-stigma). These findings confirmed stigma has both similar and unique cultural aspects across groups. Despite this, few studies tested stigma reduction interventions (N = 7). These cultural insights can inform contextual change at the health systems and community levels to reduce stigma, and empowerment at the interpersonal and individual levels to resist stigma.