Treating Common Mental Disorders in Women in Mozambique by Addressing Intimate Partner Violence in Couples

Adapting mental health treatments to address modifiable interpersonal problems has the potential to improve and sustain outcomes in low-resource settings where treatment gaps persist. This K23 Award will prepare the candidate to become an independent investigator with high-impact public health research and expertise in couple-based interventions that address interrelated mental health problems and intimate partner violence in couples by gaining expertise in engagement and treatment of men, adapting an evidence-based treatment for common mental disorders to address IPV in couples, designing and conducting randomized controlled trials with couples, and professional skills development. This work has applicability for low-resource low-income countries and US populations that experience couple-based violence and the mental health treatment gap. With its focus on intimate partners, the intervention also has the potential to benefit health and wellbeing of children.