Tegura Ejo Heza
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Digital self-care to support mental health literacy and access to care
Challenge
An alarming rate of 13% of Rwandans ages 12-17 report suicidal ideation or behavior within the last 6 months, and 20%of those young people have HIV. One in four youth meets the diagnostic criteria for depression. Mental health literacy is low among Rwandan youth, and there is reported societal shame in seeking help.
Youth create vision boards for their mental health journey at a co-design session
Innovation
Tegura Ejo Heza, which means “prepare for a better tomorrow” in Kinyarwanda, is a youth-driven, holistic digital learning and peer support platform to increase mental health literacy and psychosocial support for Rwandan youth aged 10-19 years old. During a two-year grant period, the intervention was co-designed and prototyped with the participation of young people. The platform was piloted in two urban youth centers and used by over 2,000 young people in a period of six months. Tegura Ejo Heza was implemented through a digital learning platform called Bohoka (or “free yourself") that provided information on mental health, wellbeing, and linkage to in-facility and remote mental health services. In addition to the digital platform, young people were trained as “Wellness Warriors” to provide peer-support in using the platform and leading workshops with their peers on mental health. Nurses and administration staff at the youth centers were also trained to support the Wellness Warriors and oversee the implementation of the program. The intervention was then evaluated to assess impact on mental health literacy and seeking care.
With support from Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) using UK aid from the UK Government, this innovation and proof of concept study was the first evaluation of a digital self-care intervention to support mental health literacy among African youth. Learnings from this work will yield important contributions on how to effectively engage young people in the design of culturally-appropriate interventions aimed at increasing young people’s mental health resilience and access to care.
The Bohoka platform offers mental health support and advice for youth
Next Steps
Following the six-month pilot, which targeted 2,000+ young people enrolled in two urban youth centers, we are conducting the final round of evaluations to assess how the project was received. Once the report is completed, we will share our learnings with our stakeholders, including government and development partners. If you would like to learn more about this project and our work in adolescent mental health, please contact us here.
This project is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) (project reference) using UK aid from the UK Government to support global health research. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK government.