# African Regional Research Partnerships for Scaling Up Child Mental Health EBPs

> **NIH NIH U19** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $269,459

## Abstract

Children in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) comprise half of the total regional population, yet mental health services 
are severely under-equipped to meet their needs. Although child mental health evidence-based practices 
(EBPs) exist, attempts to take them to scale have been plagued by serious challenges related to uptake, 
implementation, integration and sustainability in the U.S. and have rarely been undertaken in SSA. This 
application, in response to RFA-MH-16-350, seeks funding for an African Center for Collaborative Child mental 
health implementation Research (ACCCR), an African Regional Trans-disciplinary Collaborative Center, aimed 
at reducing child mental health service and research gaps in Uganda, Ghana, and Kenya through a population 
approach to child mental health. The proposed ACCCR is guided by the following Specific Aims: 1) To 
establish and engage a trans-disciplinary research consortium of academic, government, NGO, community 
and cultural stakeholders in Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa to focus on addressing child mental 
health burden, evidence-based intervention implementation, scale-up, service gaps; 2) To build child mental 
health implementation research capacity (including developing monitoring systems, conducting small-scale 
implementation studies) in two countries, Ghana and Kenya; 3) To conduct an EBP scale-up research study in 
Uganda, which will examine multi-level (State/government, NGOs, families, schools, communities) influences 
on the uptake, implementation, effectiveness and sustainability of EBPs that address serious child disruptive 
behavioral challenges; 4) To disseminate timely and pragmatic findings to government officials (Ministries of 
Health and Education) and consortium partners to optimize roll-outs of EBPs and scale-up process via an 
African Policy Research Advisory Board, consisting of an expanded network of scientists, NGOs and 
government officials. The US-based team consists of scientific leaders in child mental health services and 
implementation science, as well as investigators with current NIH-funded studies and capacity building 
programs set across Africa, Drs. McKay, Ogedegbe, Hoagwood, Huang, Ssewamala. SSA investigators are 
drawn from leading academic institutions, including Makerere University, Rakai Health Sciences Program 
(Uganda), University of Ghana and University of Nairobi (Kenya). NGOs with multi-country presence have 
expressed strong commitment to supporting the goals of the ACCCR. The ACCCR leadership team will work 
closely with five Subcontract PIs to develop strategies to engage collaborating institutions, as well as relevant 
community stakeholders. This trans-disciplinary partnership within and across countries will lay foundation 
work for subsequent scale up studies in Uganda, Ghana and Kenya and ultimately sustainment of efforts. The 
work of the ACCCR targets the core goal of the Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health initiative to expand 
access to effe...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9933102
- **Project number:** 5U19MH110001-05
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mary McKernan McKay
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $269,459
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9933102

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9933102, African Regional Research Partnerships for Scaling Up Child Mental Health EBPs (5U19MH110001-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9933102. Licensed CC0.

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