January 2023  |  ICHAD & SMART Africa Monthly Monitor

Starting the New Year with Hope

We greet our friends and colleagues with best wishes as we all settle into the New Year. The holidays were a joyful time to gather and rest, and to celebrate a productive year of growth and accomplishments. We are excited to share our forthcoming Annual Report, which will highlight the progress and achievements of our active research studies and four research training grants, as well as Center activities and honors. 

The year ended with a feature article on our work in the December issue of Washington Magazine. An accompanying documentary film will be released in early 2023. This year, ICHAD will be celebrating our Center’s tenth anniversary as a high-impact intervention research center, and we look forward to sharing the documentary at our 10th Anniversary Celebration on April 11 at the Brown School, as well as at the Global Health Symposium in March. More details will be available soon. We are also looking forward to more in-person training sessions and research site visits, conferences, speaker series events, and more.

We are hopeful for the year ahead, and we look forward to continuing our collaborations and creating new partnerships to improve the health and well-being of children and families in Sub-Saharan Africa and globally.
 

In partnership,

The ICHAD and SMART Africa Teams

Dr. Fred Gives Aaron Rosen Lecture at the Society for Social Work and Research Conference

At the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) 27th Annual Conference, Dr. Fred Ssewamala delivered the Aaron Rosen Lecture, a distinguished lecture hosted and sponsored by the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. This year’s awardee, Dr. Tanya L. Sharpe, was unable be present at the conference, and Dr. Fred was invited to fill this honored role. Introduced by Tonya Edmond, Co-Interim Dean of the Brown School, Dr. Fred began his lecture by sharing his connection to Dr. Aaron Rosen, the lecture's esteemed namesake, as one of his students in the early stages of his doctoral studies in social work. Dr. Fred shared that he was especially honored to present this lecture because Dr. Rosen first taught him how to apply theory into practice.

Dr. Fred framed his lecture in the context of the global impacts of poverty and HIV, and he highlighted several of the intervention research projects the International Center for Child Health and Development (ICHAD) has implemented to alleviate and reverse poor outcomes stemming from poverty and stigma. He also emphasized his ongoing commitment to mentoring and building a pipeline of a new cadre of HIV and mental health researchers. Noting the low percentage of publications addressing research interventions in low and middle income countries (LMICs) that include authors that are from and work in LMIC settings, Dr. Fred said, “We are still guided by theories from the Global North but the person closer to the program knows it better than the person who is coming in [from the Global North]… I am extremely grateful that the Brown School has supported the effort of helping me to train the new cadre of researchers and implementers from the African continent… We have had over 25 of them in the last four years. That is huge. These are the people who are going to address these complex social issues when I have left the dance the floor.” He proceeded to respond to a wide range of audience questions from emerging and early career researchers.

Dr. Fred Featured in Washington Magazine

Dr. Fred and the ICHAD team had the honor of being featured in the December issue of Washington Magazine, and a documentary film Offering Hope is forthcoming in early 2023. The in-depth article and documentary film highlight how our research team and collaborators in Uganda are creating and implementing poverty alleviation and public health interventions that are making a huge difference in the lives of children, families and communities. We look forward to sharing the documentary film in upcoming events at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, including our 10th Anniversary Celebration on April 11. For more details, visit https://ichad.wustl.edu/10th-anniversary-celebration/. 

ICHAD Research Fellow, Nhial Tutlam, Appointed as Research Assistant Professor at the Brown School

We are thrilled to congratulate ICHAD US team member, Dr. Nhial Tutlam, on his new appointment as a research assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Tutlam joined ICHAD in 2020 as a research trainee with the LEAD Global Training Program and became a LEAD postdoctoral research associate in 2021. In 2022, he became a postdoctoral research fellow with the inaugural cohort of research trainees with ICHAD’s newest and largest NIH training grant, ACHIEVE. His research focuses on mental health and HIV among conflict affected and refugee youth in Uganda.

“I am very excited about my transition to a research faculty role at the Brown School. In this role, I hope to continue collaborating with leading scholars in the field and colleagues at ICHAD in Uganda to explore important research questions and develop interventions to address the myriad of mental health challenges facing youth affected by conflict, both in refugee camp settings and those resettled in the United States," said Dr. Tutlam. He is currently leading a supplemental grant to ICHAD’s Suubi+Adherence Round 2 project. The study aims to recruit refugee youth living with HIV (RYLHIV) to understand factors around access to and utilization of HIV treatment and adherence to treatment, trauma-associated disorders, psychological functioning, and sexual decision-making which will contribute to our understanding of the dual public health threats of HIV and mental health among vulnerable refugee youth in Uganda.

ICHAD Study Highlight: Bridges Round 2

Bridges to the Future Round 2 Study (2022-2026)
Award: $2.4 million
Funding Partner: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Principal Investigators: Fred M. Ssewamala, PhD, Ozge Sensoy Bahar, PhD, Proscovia Nabunya, PhD.
For more information: https://ichad.wustl.edu/bridges-to-the-future/ 
 
The Bridges R2 study builds on the original Bridges to the Future Study (2012-2018) that was implemented in the greater Masaka region located in Southwestern Uganda among 1383 HIV orphaned youth. The Round 2 study targets 999 orphaned youth who participated in the original Bridges study to examine the longterm impacts of an economic empowerment intervention on HIV risk prevention and care continuum outcomes among orphaned youths transitioning to young adulthood. 

This four-year study aims to examine the intervention's long-term impact on HIV prevalence and key developmental and behavioral outcomes including mental health and alcohol and drug misuse among the participants. It also seeks to understand the long-term effects of the study interventions on potential mechanisms of change, including: economic stability, HIV viral suppression; PrEP use (for HIV negative adolescents), medical male circumcision (for boys); as well as youth transitions into adulthood. To date, 635 participants have been interviewed and tested for HIV. Those testing positive have received counseling services and have been referred for treatment services. The study participants have shared that they are extremely excited and appreciative for having been called for Round 2 of the Bridges study because it has given them more hope and courage to carry on with life.

Recent Publications

1.      Sensoy Bahar, O., Nabunya, P., Namuwonge, F., Samtani, S., Ssentumbwe, V., Namuli, F., Magorokosho, N., & Ssewamala, F. M. (2023). “It gives you a road map of what to do to solve your problems”: Acceptability of a combination HIV prevention intervention among adolescent girls in Uganda. BMC Public Health. 

2.      Byansi, W., Howell, T. H., Filiatreau, L., Nabunya, P., Kaiser, N., Erin Kasson, E., Ssewamala, F. M., & Cavazos-Rehg, P. (2023). Sexual and Health Behaviors and Knowledge among Uganda Adolescent Girls: Implications for Advancing Comprehensive Sexual Health Education. Child and Youth Care Forum.  

3.      Tutlam, N. T., Filiatreau, L. M., Byansi, W., Brathwaite, R., Nabunya, P., Sensoy Bahar, O., Namuwonge, F., Ssewamala, F. M. (In press). The Impact of Economic Empowerment Intervention on Psychological Difficulties and Prosocial Behavior among AIDS-Orphaned Children in Southern Uganda. Journal of Adolescent Health. 

4.      Nabunya P, Namuwonge F, Sensoy Bahar O, Ssentumbwe V, Migadde H, Mugisha J, Ssewamala FM. (In press). Stigma by Association, Parenting Stress and the Mental Health of Caregivers of Adolescents Living with HIV in Uganda. Journal of Adolescent Health.

5.      Sensoy Bahar, O., Nabunya, P., Nabayinda, J., Witte, S., Kiyingi, J., Nsubuga, E., ... & Ssewamala, F. M. (2023). “I decided in my heart I have to complete the sessions”: A qualitative study on the acceptability of an evidence-based HIV risk reduction intervention among women engaged in sex work in Uganda. Plos one, 18(1), e0280138.

6.      Ssewamala, F. M., Brathwaite, R., & Neilands, T. B. (2023). Economic Empowerment, HIV Risk Behavior, and Mental Health Among School-Going Adolescent Girls in Uganda: Longitudinal Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial, 2017‒2022. American Journal of Public Health, (0), e1-e10.

7.      Filiatreau, LM, Tutlam, NT, Brathwaite, R, Byansi, W, Namuwonge, F, Mwebembezi, A, Sensoy-Bahar, O, Nabunya, P, Neilands, TB,  Cavazos-Rehg, P, McKay, M, Ssewamala, FM. (In press.) Effects of a combination economic empowerment and family strengthening intervention on psychosocial well-being among Ugandan adolescent girls and young women: analysis of a cluster randomized controlled trial from the Suubi4Her study. Journal of Adolescent Health.

8.      Santelli, J. S., Rosen, G., & Ssewamala, F. M. (2022). What can academic researchers contribute to advancing adolescent wellbeing?. bmj, 379.

9.      Nabayinda, J., Kiyingi, J., Kizito, S., Nsubuga, E., Nabunya, P., Sensoy Bahar, O., Magorokosho, N., Nattabi, J., Witte, S., and Ssewamala F.M. (2022). Does asset ownership influence sexual risk-taking behaviors among women engaged in sex work in Southern Uganda? A Mediation Analysis. BMC Women’s Health. BMC, 22(1), 1-8.

10.   Nabunya, P. (2022). Social Support Networks for Adolescents Orphaned by HIV: Definitions, Barriers, Challenges and Lessons from Uganda. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies.

Recent Presentations

Members of the Brown School's ICHAD research team presented 13 paper and poster presentations in person at the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) 27th Annual Conference, Social Work Science and Complex Problems: Battling Inequities + Building Solutions, at the Sheraton Downtown Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, January 11-15, 2023. For a complete list of presentations, visit https://ichad.wustl.edu/2022/11/ichad-to-present-at-sswr-in-january/.

Holiday Celebrations

ICHAD US staff gathered in December at the home of Mary McKay and Jan Browne to celebrate the holidays