AfriChild, Center for study of the African Child together with New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, Columbia University‘s International Center For Child Health and Asset Development(ICHAD) and Institute for Poverty Policy and Research, held the first annual conference on child behavioral health in Sub-Saharan Africa from July 12th – 15th 2016. The two-day conference held at Kampala Sheraton hotel was opened by the first lady of Uganda, Hon. Janet Museveni who is also the Minister for Education and Sports. The conference was attended by 180 delegates from Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Nigeria and the United States of America.
The objective of the conference was to launch a multi-year Collaborative Child Mental Health Research funded by the United States Government National Institute of Mental Health.
The multi-year study will provide evidence on effective interventions to address child behavioral health in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Joyce Wanican, the Executive Director of AfriChild Centre made a presentation on the role of communities in research. She called upon, researchers to collaborate with communities as equal partners in the development, implementation and dissemination of research findings.
“Partnership with communities ensures researchers obtain valid and quality results. It also enhances understanding, trust, and knowledge between researchers and the community.”
It is estimated that one in five children and adolescents suffer from mental disorders. In addition, millions of African youth face daily challenges, including grief due to loss of parents to AIDS, extreme poverty, conflict, displacement, illness, or physical and sexual victimization, all of which can contribute to poor behavioral health.
Policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and community members have come together in this conference to collaboratively begin develop and ultimately test theoretically informed, culturally appropriate, evidence-based and youth and family-focused service models.
Participants have been drawn from Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and the U.S.
Academic researchers have come from institutions including New York University, Columbia University, Oxford University, Makerere University, University of Nairobi, University of Ghana, University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of Cape Town, and University College London.
