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. 2023 Feb 8:12:e42919.
doi: 10.2196/42919.

Mobile Mental Health in Women's Community-Based Organizations: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Amritha Bhat  1 , B Ramakrishna Goud  2 , Bharat Kalidindi  3 , Johnson Pradeep Ruben  2   3 , Dhinagaran Devadass  3 , Abijeet Waghmare  3 , Pamela Y Collins  1   4 , Tony Raj  3 , Krishnamachari Srinivasan  2   3
Affiliations

Mobile Mental Health in Women's Community-Based Organizations: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Amritha Bhat et al. JMIR Res Protoc. .

Abstract

Background: Of every 10 women in rural India, 1 suffers from a common mental disorder such as depression, and untreated depression is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Several factors lead to a large treatment gap, specifically for women in rural India, including stigma, lack of provider mental health workforce, and travel times. There is an urgent need to improve the rates of detection and treatment of depression among women in rural India without overburdening the scarce mental health resources.

Objective: We propose to develop, test, and deploy a mental health app, MITHRA (Multiuser Interactive Health Response Application), for depression screening and brief intervention, designed for use in women's self-help groups (SHGs) in rural India.

Methods: We will use focus groups with SHG members and community health workers to guide the initial development of the app, followed by iterative modification based on input from a participatory design group consisting of proposed end users of the app (SHG members). The final version of the app will then be deployed for testing in a pilot cluster randomized trial, with 3 SHGs randomized to receive the app and 3 to receive enhanced care as usual.

Results: This study was funded in June 2021. As of September 2022, we have completed both focus groups, 1 participatory design group, and app development.

Conclusions: Delivering app-based depression screening and treatment in community settings such as SHGs can address stigma and transportation-related barriers to access to depression care and overcome cultural and contextual barriers to mobile health use. It can also address the mental health workforce shortage. If we find that the MITHRA approach is feasible, we will test the implementation and effectiveness of MITHRA in multiple SHGs across India in a larger randomized controlled trial. This approach of leveraging community-based organizations to improve the reach of depression screening and treatment is applicable in rural and underserved areas across the globe.

International registered report identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/42919.

Keywords: community-based; depression; mobile mental health; rural; stepped care; women.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
MITHRA conceptual model. 1. MITHRA will refer to Primary Health Center women with severe symptoms or nonresponse. 2. MITHRA provides depression screening and tracking in the community. 3. MITHRA leverages scheduled gatherings of women from the same community. 4. Education delivered through MITHRA will influence perceived need for care 5. MITHRA will potentially improve utilization rates and satisfaction with care.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Stages of development of the MITHRA (Multiuser Interactive Health Response Application) app. CHW = Community Health Worker; PDG = Participatory Design Group (CHWs and women who attend CBO meetings).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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