Doc.CH funding to Beatrice Bano

The Swiss National Science Foundation has awarded a Doc.CH grant to Beatrice Bano, a future PhD student at USI Institute of Public Health, for her project on the implementation of mental health care interventions (titled: "Fill the implementation gap: a mixed methods study of theory-based adaptation and implementation approaches and processes of a low-dose psychosocial intervention for caregivers") co-supervised by Professor Emiliano Albanese of Università della Svizzera italiana and Dr. Marianna Purgato of the University of Verona.

The Doc.CH Application supports doctoral theses by promising researchers in the humanities and social sciences. The evaluation takes place in two phases and includes a personal interview of the candidates selected for the second phase in front of the panel of the Doc.CH Evaluation Commission.

What is the project about?

"The project falls within the scope of mental health and implementation research. In particular, at the IPH, and with the collaboration of the University of Verona," explains Beatrice Bano. "I will be responsible for adapting interventions originally developed by the WHO for Ticino’s community of family caregivers. The interventions aim to give family caregivers access to a tool that can reduce stress levels associated with care and treatment, without and independent of mediation by a healthcare professional. After the linguistic, cultural, and contextual adaptation phase, we will test the effectiveness of the interventions, and also consider potential barriers and facilitators to its use, which are important aspects of understanding how to implement and maintain interventions over time in a sustainable and user-friendly manner".

What are the practical objectives and implications of this project?

The project is divided into three studies and will be developed over four years.

The first study aims to synthesize scientific evidence (through a systematic literature review) on how the successful implementation of a mental health intervention is measured. We will focus on identifying and measuring indicators. At the same time, we will study the existence of psychosocial theories underlying the development and desired success of this type of intervention.

The second study aims to adapt the intervention within Ticino, so that it is relevant, accessible and user-friendly for family caregivers, and sustainable over time.

The third study aims to test the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing stress levels and improving mental health and well-being of family caregivers. We will also study how and why the intervention works, focusing on the implementation process.

One of the practical implications of our project is to understand whether, how, and how much it is possible to reduce stress and improve the mental health of Ticino's family caregivers.

The project also has the ambition to help advance our knowledge of methods, and of conducting implementation studies of complex interventions. This is a very important area of research for public health, and still relatively unexplored.

The Doc.CH programme will be phased out in 2025, following the adoption of the National Fund's new multi-year programme, which plans to focus on career support from post-doc onwards. Therefore, only two deadlines remain: 15 September 2023 and 15 March 2024.