Hosted by the GPH Global Mental Health & Stigma Program
The mental health treatment gap is large worldwide, especially for children and adolescents. There is a scarcity of mental health specialists with expertise in care for young people, and risk factors at the individual, family, and community levels require integrated responses that are difficult in low-resource contexts. In this presentation, Dr. Eve Puffer will describe a community-embedded approach to delivering interventions for children and families, as illustrated in the development and delivery of a package of family-based programs in Kenya. She will discuss the development of the family strengthening and family therapy interventions designed for low-resource settings, as well as the implementation by non-specialist, community-based providers.
About the Speaker:
Eve Puffer, PhD is an Assistant Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience and Global Health at Duke University and is a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating family- and community-based interventions to address child and adolescent mental health needs in low-resource settings. Current research studies include evaluations of parenting programs, family strengthening and family therapy interventions, and community-based mental health and HIV prevention efforts in religious congregations. Dr. Puffer is an investigator on trials in Kenya, Liberia, Thailand, Ethiopia, and El Salvador. She also conducts studies to validate measures of family well-being and mental health for low- and middle-income country settings.
The mission of the Global Mental Health & Stigma Program is to demonstrate the importance of mental health as integral to public health and improve global mental health through research, training, and implementation. At these virtual events, program collaborators will present research and findings on mental health topics.