Improving help-seeking for depression care in Nepal: Development and testing the feasibility, acceptability and appropriateness of a social contact-based community intervention

There is a tremendous gap between the number of people who need treatment and those actually receive services in LMIC. In the recent years, attention has been given, especially in LMICs, to making mental health services available in the community. However, very little is known about why people do not seek care when effective treatments are available. In this study, I want to develop and test the feasibility, acceptability and appropriateness of a social contact-based community intervention to address the demand side barriers, particularly for reducing negative attitudes and intentions towards seeking depression care. I will develop an innovative intervention by involving a wide range of stakeholders including people suffering from depression, their family members, mental health experts and other key community stakeholders through a formative qualitative study. I will test the intervention using a cluster randomized controlled trial in two randomly selected Municipalities in Jhapa district of Nepal.