COVID-19 Recovery: Scoping an Intervention in Youth Mental Health Support in Kenya

Young people are disproportionately affected by the secondary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with serious consequences for mental health and well-being. Youth in low-income countries are especially vulnerable to economic hardship and disrupted education, and least likely to receive adequate psycho-social care. Implemented collaboratively by The Youth Cafe and University of Sussex, this project will formulate a contextually-appropriate psycho-social intervention model, aiming to improve youth mental health, promote social inclusion and strengthen post-pandemic resilience in Kenya.

A recent public engagement event, “Lockdown Live”, hosted by the University of Sussex and The Youth Café, a pan-African NGO, highlighted the importance of mental health to young people’s experiences in the pandemic and recovery from its aftermath. Four weekly online meetings in July 2020 (garnering a total of 105,000 views) brought together 54 youth participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, the UK and Kenya to discuss pressing issues affecting youth in global and local contexts during the pandemic. Of the four weekly topics (learning in lockdown, COVID-related mis/disinformation, post-COVID futures and youth mental health), the mental health content generated the highest level of engagement. As well as a 45% increase in online participation, the mental health session revealed shared concern among discussants about the relevance of conventional “expert-led” approaches, alongside strong interest in pursuing contextually-sensitive solutions that draw from the perspectives of young people and their communities.

This project will build directly on this successful youth-engagement platform, Lockdown Live produced clear indicators about the potential for novel intervention methods to address youth mental health in low-resourced contexts, drawing on life writing, social media and peer support, compatible with increasing uptake of digital technologies. This work now needs to be situated in a robust evidence-based practice framework while incorporating key contextual findings.