Building capacity of Health Care Workers and Peer Supporters to provide mental health services to adolescents and young mothers living with HIV in Tanzania

The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), through the Faith-Based Action for Scaling up Testing and Treatment for the Epidemic Response (FASTER) project, a collaboration by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and CHAI funded by PEPFAR through CDC, and in collaboration with the Pediatric-Adolescent Treatment Africa (PATA) and Ministry of Health (MoH) of Tanzania, developed resources to build health care worker capacity to deliver mental health services for adolescents and young mothers living with HIV. This work was informed by health provider competency and client needs assessments.

A ‘Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing’ manual on supporting adolescents living with HIV, which features didactic modules and group and individual activities, was developed and delivered to 11 HCWs and 15 peer supporters from 6 health facilities during a workshop in Dar es Salaam in June 2021.

A follow-up session was held with peer supporters in August 2021, and a self-guided workbook developed for HCWs, to provide additional guidance on specific challenges noted by beneficiaries.