Combined psychosocial and nutrition interventions improve the development of infants. However, there is a paucity of studies examining the effectiveness of such interventions in humanitarian settings. This article examines the impact of combining a group-based psychosocial intervention with an existing emergency feeding program for internally displaced mothers in Northern Uganda. The intervention consisted of mother and baby group sessions and home visits for mothers attending 3 emergency feeding centers. Psychosocial outcomes were compared with a contrast group of mothers who received nutritional support alone. The outcomes investigated were infant stimulation and maternal mood. After controlling for the effects of interview site and baseline scores, mothers in the intervention group (n = 70) showed greater involvement with their babies, more availability of play materials, and less sadness and worry at follow-up in comparison to the contrast group (n = 77). The intervention was acceptable to the mothers and easily taught. A proportion of the mothers chose to continue the intervention spontaneously with other mothers in their neighbourhoods. Further research needs to be done to validate these preliminary findings and explore the longer term impact on child growth and intellectual development as well as maternal mood.

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Mental health services in participating countries are limited and often hospital based.

trial of patient flow and treatment assignment at emergency room discharge over 1-month, we implemented a consensual diagnostic and treatment decision manual. Then, an educational program aimed to improve the understanding of the reliability of treatment decision among the psychiatric staff of the emergency room. In short, a substantial proportion of psychiatric patients with suicide attempt did not receive adequate treatment assignment at discharge and the presence of a clinical diagnosis of borderline personality disorder was a factor of even more unpredictable treatment choice. This is an issue of great need and potential impact since medical decisions often appeared to favour either treatment that are more expensive or treatments that are at increased risk of completed suicide. Further steps of the data analyses aimed to clarify the impact of better quality assurance on the reliability of treatment decision are under scrutiny and will be discussed.