The project will to support children and adolescents from mental health depression and disorders and to reduce excess morbidity and mortality due to malnutrition among children. This will integrate mental health care and nutrition among vulnerable children into service delivery and involvement of sporting as therapy and to create awareness. In all villages in the target area children and youth have no access to mental health and children nutrition support care. 

The project will use Peer Support Worker (PSW) approach for community level mental health care in the government aided health centre IVs within the project districts. This will involve the training of service users to undertake group and one-on-one therapeutic recovery sessions for community members, assisting the formal healthcare workers to reach unmet need in the community.

In therapy groups, members will find a safe space to open up with peers about their worries and struggles. Over 6-10 sessions, counselors guide structured discussions to help participants identify the underlying triggers of their depression and examine how their current relationships and their depression are linked. Together, they strategize solutions to their problems, learn coping mechanisms, practice interpersonal skills, and identify support structures that they can continue to lean on after therapy has ended. Members work together to strategize solutions for overcoming their challenges, forming strong social bonds in the process. Since depression is episodic and recurrent throughout most people’s lives, these newly acquired skills have both immediate and long-term preventive impacts for the individual.

Therapy phases

The sessions are divided into three phases, each with distinct objectives:

• Initial Phase: This phase focuses on building trust and rapport among group members so that they feel comfortable opening up with one another.
• Middle Phase: This phase ensures that all members are actively engaged in discussion and collective problem-solving. Participants learn to fully understand the symptoms and triggers of depression.
• Termination Phase: By this stage, most participants have experienced a substantial reduction in the severity of their depression symptoms. As they prepare for the end of formal sessions, each will make a plan to identify and mitigate triggers in the future, so that they can prevent recurring depressive episodes.