TITLE:
Efficacy of Psychosocial and Mental Health Interventions to Mitigating the Effect of COVID-19 among Learners in Kenya
AUTHORS:
Mburugu Beatrice, Mbutitia Francisca, Chepchieng Micah, Kangethe Mary, Ngugi Grace, Kung’u Lucy, Ngure Peter, Raburu Pamela, Avisa Hellen, Gitau Susan
KEYWORDS:
COVID-19 Pandemic, Efficacy, Evaluate, Intervention, Learners, Mental Health, Psychosocial
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.7,
July
25,
2023
ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic was declared a public health
emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization in January 30,
2020. COVID-19 affected more than 1.5 billion learners worldwide including 18
million in Kenya. As much as a lot has been done to control and manage the physical
health effects posed by the pandemic globally, there has been little effort put
on psychosocial and mental health support to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 pandemic,
especially among school learners. As such, researchers in Kenya came up with psychosocial
and mental health (PSMH) interventions that were
offered to learners to mitigate the PSMH effects of COVID-19. Since learners
affected by PSMH issues, rely on schools for their PSMH wellbeing and development,
the intervention was offered to selected learners that met intervention threshold
for period of two months in their respective schools. In order to build a strong
evidence of efficacy of the intervention, the study carried out an outcome evaluation which is primarily target-audience oriented.
This is where the effects of the intervention on learners’ PSMH wellbeing
were measured. Mass outbreaks such as pandemics are associated with adverse PSMH
problems requiring efficacious psychological interventions, thus the need for this study. The findings revealed
statistically significant differences in PSMH scores between learners as per counties
and category of schools. No difference was noted with gender. There is therefore
need to mainstream PSMH programmes in educational institutions in the country.