Reintegrating Children Living at Landfills in Burundi Into Society by Means of a Comprehensive Family Program Addressing Maltreatment and Mental Health Symptoms

University of Konstanz

Status: Completed

Conditions: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; Parental Maltreatment; Days Spent at the Landfill; Aggressive Behaviour

Treatments: Behavioral: Comprehensive family intervention including individual sessions of FORNET

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT03846154

UKCR18

Details and patient eligibility

About

Children living at the landfills of Bujumbura are often exposed to maltreatment, including emotional neglect and physical abuse, and traumatic experiences. Furthermore, they grow up in severe poverty. Addressing trauma-related mental health issues and aggressive behaviour by Narrative Exposure Therapy (FORNET), familial communication by family visits, interaction difficulties of children by a group intervention, poverty by financial support and economic training for mothers, medical problems by medical assistance, legal conflicts by legal advice, and providing access to school, we aimed at reintegrating those children within the Burundian school system and improving familial relationships.

The investigators want to provide evidence, that mental health interventions are an integral part of assisting children and families affected by poverty and violence.

Enrollment: 96 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 7 to 18 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Spending days at the landfills of Bujumbura

Exclusion criteria

• Psychotic symptoms

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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96 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

Children and adolescents in the intervention group received: 1. A group intervention once a week for about 20 weeks, including psychoeducation on mental health and drug abuse, anger management, roles within families, developing plans for the future, communication skills, sex education. 2. Access to schools and school material 3. Family visits 4. Their parents received training regarding agriculture and microcredit projects, and financial assistance 5. FORNET if affected by trauma-related symptoms, and/or acting aggressive 6. If needed medical assistance is provided 7. If needed legal assistance is provided

Treatment:

Behavioral: Comprehensive family intervention including individual sessions of FORNET

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group was invited to participate in three interviews getting small amounts of money (\~2,5 €) as decompensation of their time.