Globally, children and youth are more vulnerable to experiencing mental health
challenges; early intervention is key to preventing ongoing mental health difficulties into
adolescence and adulthood. School-based mental health interventions have proven to be
effective but require a significant amount of collaboration between teachers, parents,
mental health specialists and other important stakeholders. Equally noteworthy are the
significant treatment, resource and capacity gaps between high and low to middle income
countries when it comes to child mental health; the SHINE research group seeks to
implement a school-based mental health program in countries in the Eastern
Mediterranean region. They also intend to scale-up the prevention and intervention
capabilities of said countries to improve overall child mental health. This study
investigated the role of collaborative care in SHINE’s program development and
implementation processes, while examining the cultural and societal challenges
associated with implementing a school mental health program developed primarily in
high-income countries to specific non-Western contexts. Individual and small-group indepth interviews were conducted with ten key stakeholders from the SHINE team and
partner countries (specifically Iran, Jordan and Egypt). Findings identified the potential
for the collaborative care approach within the SHINE school mental health program to
greatly ameliorate child mental health outcomes. Additionally, participants noted the
necessity for clearer stakeholder role definition and differentiation of general vs specific
program elements between countries. Challenges associated with implementing the
intervention in the Eastern Mediterranean region included the dominant role of the
family, challenging societal norms and stigmatization and structural barriers to applying
SHINE’s specific program resources. In summary, the role of collaborative care is
increasingly important to SHINE’s current efforts in improving child mental health,
however, individual cultural and country characteristics should be an area of emphasis
moving forward. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The SHINE research group are implementing a school-based mental health intervention
in the Eastern Mediterranean region, alongside a facilitated collaborative learning group
involving key local and global stakeholders. This study focuses on the collaborative care
element of the school-based mental health program and its impact on the overall
functioning of the intervention, in different country contexts. Collaborative care involves
the interactions between parents, teachers, mental health professionals and researchers to
ensure the sustainability of the program as well as its scalability to different country
contexts. This is an exploratory qualitative study with a case study design; data has been
collected with ten participants through individual and small group in-depth interviews.
Interviews were transcribed, coded and then cross-compared using thematic analysis to
identify overarching patterns. The primary goals of the study are to examine the role of
collaboration as well as to consider some of the challenges of applying Western
psychological interventions to diverse country and cultural contexts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/26893 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Low, Maya |
| Contributors | Savelli, Mat, Global Health |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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