Box 2 Global mental health (GMH) implementation science: next steps

Study designs. Encourage explicit use of implementation science in GMH treatment studies, leveraging new hybrid effectiveness-implementation designs at early stages of investigation

    Integrate within priority care systems

    Engage a reciprocal partnership with local and national policy makers and opinion leaders as well as health and mental health practitioners and researchers in the early stages of the treatment study, focused on scaling up mental health care to address local needs

    Continue and extend the GMH history of context-dependent adaptations of interventions to improve fit with population needs and service setting

    Develop criteria for selection of study personnel for sustained, collaborative implementation

    Use explicit strategies to develop local, sustainable methods of supervising non-specialist providers

Study outcomes. Emphasize policy-relevant outcomes for GMH:

    Evaluate treatment effect on health co-morbidities (e.g., HIV viral load, neurocognitive deficits and other communicable and non-communicable diseases)

    Conduct cost analyses (e.g., cost-benefit and changes in economic productivity)