Simple, Stigma-free, Scalable, and School-based: A Four-step Approach to Developing Adolescent Mental Health Treatments in Sub Saharan Africa

-Adolescent mental health problems—which are associated with many negative life outcomes—are prevalent in low-income regions such as those in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) yet many youths suffering from these problems never get treatment.-Existing treatments are inaccessible to SSA youths because they are long, costly, and require expert delivery in a setting where incomes are low, and a paucity of caregivers exist and where social stigma limits help-seeking.-Most of the efforts to develop interventions for youth mental have been led by researchers from Western high-income countries and can be criticized as socio-culturally inappropriate and costly. -To guide intervention development efforts, we propose a four-step approach that encourages researchers to develop mental health interventions that are simple, stigma-free, scalable and school-based. Through this four-step approach, researchers can expand mental healthcare access in SSA by developing interventions that circumvent existing barriers.