Funder: Tufts Springboard

Principal Investigator: Dr. Saloni Dev

Co-Investigator: Dr. Ramnath Subbaraman

Co-Investigator/Site Principal Investigator: Dr. Antia Patil-Deskhmukh

Status: Ongoing

Abstract: Nearly one billion people globally, including 93 million people in India, live in slums. Prior studies reveal very high rates of poor mental health in slums in India, pointing to a potentially high burden of co-occurring probable mental illnesses (MI) in this population given the exposure to a range of socio-economic adversities. However, research is needed to characterize these in slums. In light of India’s dearth of mental health professionals, this also highlights the need to develop and scale up evidence-based, cost-effective transdiagnostic psychological treatments delivered by trained lay health workers (i.e., task sharing) to address a range of MIs. Moreover, there is a widely recognized need for psychological treatments to simultaneously address social drivers of mental health. Preliminary evidence suggests that water insecurity may impact mental health outcomes among slum residents and could be a target of such interventions. This study aims to assess the prevalence of co-occurring probable MIs (i.e., two or more of probable depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and unhealthy alcohol use), and understand the impact of water insecurity on co-occurring probable MIs in Kaula Bandar, a slum of 15,000 people in Mumbai. We will survey 500 individuals recruited using a random sampling strategy and use validated measures of individual- and household-level water insecurity, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and unhealthy alcohol use.