Consumer perspectives on acceptability of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy in Tanzania and Kenya: A mixed methods study.

Background: There is a substantial mental health treatment gap globally. Increasingly, mental health treatments with evidence of effectiveness in western countries have been adapted and tested in culturally and contextually distinct countries. Findings from these studies have been promising, but to better understand treatment outcome results and consider broader scale up, treatment acceptability needs to be assessed and better understood. This mixed methods study aimed to examine child and guardian acceptability of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) in two regions in Tanzania and Kenya and to better understand how TF-CBT was perceived as helpful for children and guardians. Methods: Participants were 315 children (7-13), who experienced the death of one or both parents and 315 guardians, both of whom participated in TF-CBT as part of a randomized controlled trial conducted in Tanzania and Kenya. The study used mixed methods, with quantitative evaluation from guardian perspective ( Results: Guardians reported high acceptability on the TAQ and, using an interpretation guide from U.S.-based work, medium acceptability on the CSQ-8. Guardians and children noted high acceptability in the qualitative analysis, noting benefits that correspond to TF-CBT's therapeutic goals. Analyses exploring differences in acceptability yielded few differences by setting or child age but suggested some potential differences by country. Conclusion: Quantitative and qualitative data converged to suggest high acceptability of TF-CBT from guardian and child perspectives in Tanzania and Kenya. Findings add to accumulating evidence of high TF-CBT acceptability from Zambia and other countries (United States, Norway, Australia).