PROJECT SUMMARY
Globally, mental disorders are the second largest contributor to the burden of disease in adults.
In settings disrupted by war and civil unrest, violence and loss contribute to significant
unaddressed burden of mental disorders and family violence in adults with subsequent risks to
children. In Rwanda the intergenerational mental health consequences of the 1994 Genocide
against the Tutsi in Rwanda persist; recent studies found that 20% of the Rwandan population
has one or more mental disorders with the highest rates observed in Genocide survivors. Sugira
Muryango is an evidence-based, trauma-informed, family-based behavioral intervention to
promote healthy family functioning, early childhood development and reduce family violence. In
several trials, Sugira Muryango has led to improvements in parental mental health and child
development outcomes including social and emotional development of children, improved
caregiver mental health and reductions in family violence. To support scaling the intervention the
University of Rwanda and other partners developed a Digital Dashboard tool that: (a)
streamlines collection of data on evidence-based intervention quality and reach; (b) improves
visibility and searchability of implementation data by region; (c) facilitates caregiver mental
health and social services referrals and follow up; and (d) serves as a training platform with
resources to enhance interventionist fidelity and competence. In the context of understanding
important factors for scaling evidence-based interventions, the proposed research will
investigate dashboard-supported delivery of Sugira Muryango in terms of its reach, efficiency,
and cost effectiveness. The Hybrid Type 3 implementation-effectiveness study will collect
outcomes measuring the program’s effectiveness, quality of program delivery, feasibility, and
acceptability from program beneficiaries, the interventionists, their supervisors, and community
stakeholders. The study will compare the trajectories of fidelity, competence, and self-efficacy
between dashboard-supported delivery and standard delivery. The study will also include social
network analysis to understand how the characteristics of networks comprised of supervisors
and interventionists affect trajectories over time. Lastly, the study will investigate the impact of
dashboard-supported delivery by comparing the difference in child and caregiver mental health
outcomes with standard delivery. These data will be used to analyze cost-effectiveness and
return on investment of the intervention as delivered with and without the Dashboard. The
results of the proposed research will identify scalable pathways to accelerate integration of
technology and evidence-based mental health services into policy and practice in Rwanda.
