Alcohol, conflict, and mental health: Launch of the CHANGE project

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine received a 3.8 million funding boost to investigate alcohol misuse in humanitarian settings. CHANGE is a five-year research project and is funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health and Social Care, through the National Institute for Health Research using the UK’s Official Development Assistance Funding.

CHANGE seeks to develop a transdiagnostic intervention addressing mental health comorbidities (alcohol misuse, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders) among conflict-affected populations in Uganda and Ukraine. Specifically, the research consortium seeks to further develop Problem Management Plus (PM+) an evidence-based psychological intervention developed by WHO designed for people with psychological distress who are exposed to adversity with an additional psychological component addressing alcohol misuse (new intervention called PM+A).

PM+A will be implemented among refugees from South Sudan living in the Rhino refugee settlement in Uganda; and internally displaced persons and other conflict-affected men (military veterans) in the region of Dnipro in Ukraine. These study locations have been selected because they have high levels of alcohol misuse, mental disorders, gender-based violence, and a high mental health treatment gap. These country settings represent very different socio-economic, cultural and humanitarian characteristics and populations which supports understanding of the contextual influences on adapting and implementing PM+A. The comparison of outcomes and processes between the two sites will also help inform the future development and application of PM+A with other conflict-affected populations.
 

CHANGE is a partnership between HealthRight International Uganda, the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla, the University of Copenhagen, WordsHelp Ukraine and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Further information on CHANGE can be obtained on the CHANGE project website.

Contact: Daniela Fuhr (Overall PI) – Daniela [dot] Fuhr [at] lshtm [dot] ac [dot] uk