From Burden to Action: Mental Health, Parenting, and Child Maltreatment Prevention in Resource-Limited African Settings
Presented By:
Africa has a large and growing population of young parents facing significant mental health challenges in contexts of poverty, violence, and instability. These challenges are strongly linked to child wellbeing, yet mental health and child protection services are often delivered separately.
This session presents evidence from the NIH-funded TOPOWA Study in Kampala’s urban informal settlements alongside implementation findings from the NIH-funded SafeCare parenting program in Kenya. TOPOWA provides evidence on mental health challenges among young women and their links to child maltreatment risk, while SafeCare offers practical lessons on delivering and scaling a community-based parenting intervention through Community Health Promoters.
Bringing together research, implementation, and policy perspectives from Uganda and Kenya, the session will explore how integrated mental health and parenting support can strengthen child protection systems. Participants will discuss practical pathways for scaling community-delivered parenting programmes across low-resource African settings.
Speakers
Dr. Victoria Mutiso – Africa Institute of Mental and Brain Health, Nairobi, Kenya
Dr. Hafsa Lukwata – Head of Mental Health - Ministry of Health, Uganda
Dr. Monica H. Swahn – Kennesaw State University
Session Aims
• Present evidence on mental health challenges among young women in urban informal settlements, using findings from the TOPOWA Study in Kampala, Uganda, to show how these conditions influence parenting and increase risks of child maltreatment.
• Show how Community Health Promoters (CHPs) can be trained and supported to deliver low-cost, evidence-based parenting programmes, based on implementation experience from the SafeCare Kenya study in Kibera, Nairobi.
• Promote policy discussions on the national adoption and scale-up of community-based parenting programmes that integrate mental health and child protection, drawing on lessons from Kenya and Uganda.
Session Format
The session will combine short presentations, a panel discussion, and structured audience engagement.
It will begin with a live Slido poll to explore perceptions of the link between maternal mental health and child maltreatment.
Dr. Swahn will present findings from the TOPOWA Study. Dr. Mutiso will present the SafeCare parenting programme, including its design, delivery model, and implementation lessons. Dr. Hafsa Lukwata will contribute a government perspective on integrating mental health and child protection systems and opportunities for scale-up in Africa.
Participants will then join small discussions guided by key questions on adaptation and implementation in their own settings. Insights will be shared using Slido.
The session will conclude with a summary of key messages and policy actions.