# Advancing sustainable implementation of an evidence-based mental health intervention in Sierra Leone’s schools: protocol for a hybrid type 3 implementation-effectiveness trial

## TL;DR

This study tests a mobile-based supervision model to help teachers deliver a mental health intervention in Sierra Leone's schools, aiming to improve youth mental health in a low-resource setting.

## Contribution

The study introduces a mobile-based supervision model for scaling mental health interventions in low-income countries using nonspecialist teachers.

## Key findings

- The trial will assess feasibility, acceptability, cost, and fidelity of mobile-based supervision for mental health interventions.
- Results may inform scalable mental health service delivery in low-resource settings using nonspecialist teachers.
- Mobile tools could enhance the sustainability of youth mental health programs in Sierra Leone and West Africa.

## Abstract

Mental health disorders among youth contribute substantially to the global burden of disease, which is exacerbated in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to large mental health treatment gaps. In Sierra Leone, a West African country with a long history of complex adversity, the mental health treatment gap is estimated at 98%. Implementing innovative mental health interventions that can be sustained at scale is a priority. The Youth Readiness Intervention (YRI) is an evidence-based mental health intervention for youth that can be delivered feasibly by lay health workers/nonspecialists. Using mobile-based technologies to assist implementation could improve the reach and sustainability of the YRI in Sierra Leone. This study aims to train teachers to deliver the YRI in Sierra Leone’s secondary schools and test the feasibility, acceptability, cost, and fidelity to the YRI of a mobile-based supervision model compared with standard, in-person supervision.

We will conduct a hybrid type 3 implementation-effectiveness cluster randomized trial to assess the feasibility, acceptability, costs and fidelity to the YRI implemented by teachers receiving mobile-based supervision vs. standard supervision. Enrolled schools (N = 50) will be randomized to YRI + mobile supervision (N = 20), YRI + standard supervision (N = 20) or waitlist control (N = 10). We will recruit and enroll four teachers per intervention-condition school (N = 160) and 1200 youth. We will collect data on implementation outcomes among teachers, principals and youth via a mixed methods approach at baseline and post-intervention. We will also collect quantitative data on youth mental health and functioning as secondary outcomes at baseline and post-intervention, as well as cost-effectiveness data at 12-month follow-up.

Study findings have the potential to expand the reach of mental health services among youth in low-resource settings via a teacher workforce. The use of mobile tools, if successful, could support further scale out and sustainment of the YRI to other regions of Sierra Leone and West Africa more broadly, which could help address the mental health treatment gap.

Clinical Trial Network: NCT05737667.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-024-17928-w.