Scaling access to care through a user-centred adaptation of a Digital Mental Health Intervention (Wysa) for adolescent girls with symptoms of anxiety and/or depression in rural India

The proposal aims to ensure the scalability and sustainability of a digital mental health intervention (DMHI), Wysa, for adolescent girls with symptoms of anxiety and/or depression by enabling adoption, access and engagement. Adolescent girls in rural India are among the most invisible, and vulnerable populations to mental health risk. They experience compounded socioeconomic disparities and cultural restrictions such as familial gate-keeping and barriers to literacy that limit their effective access to DMHIs. The study will culturally and contextually adapt the evidence-based intervention through the following three aims: (1) identifying and prioritising individual and contextual-level barriers to Wysa; (2) iteratively developing and testing adaptations to the intervention and implementation strategies to address these barriers (3) testing the adapted intervention and multi-component implementation strategy through a type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation design. Conducted in India, with its cultural diversity and large adolescent population, the study uses an ideal test bed to develop a solution that can be replicated in low-resource settings globally. The work will result in a (1) responsive, adapted DMHI and implementation plan for adolescent girls with anxiety/ depressive symptoms in rural settings (2) reproducible approach to adapting interventions and implementation strategies for low-resource settings.