Category: Sage

Wow! I cannot believe this is the final week of my practicum. This summer has flown by and I find myself working to finish my final deliverable for the UNC Friendship Bench Adaptation to Improve Mental Health & HIV Care Engagement Outcomes Among PLWH and PWID in Vietnam (VITAL) team. This project is basically a narrative/ literature review summarizing the existing literature on the topic of if/how psychotherapy impacts antiretroviral therapy adherence in people living with HIV. While there is a lot of information and research on the importance of addressing mental health among people living with HIV, there are fewer projects that have specifically looked at the impact on adherence and whether these changes are maintained overtime. I have enjoyed diving into the literature as it has helped me gain a better understanding of the population and barriers to mental health treatment.

I was initially drawn to the VITAL team due to my interest in global mental health and as this practicum draws to a conclusion, I have to say I have learned a great deal about common mental disorders, other comorbidities and how they are bidirectional in nature. This project is especially interesting because in one arm the Friendship Bench intervention is delivered by professional counselors and in the other lay counselors are utilized. This practice of task shifting is of great interest because of the huge shortage of professional mental health providers in many low-and middle-income countries (LMICs).

As I move into my final year at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, I am more confident and excited to gain practical skills that can be implemented in the field. My main takeaway from the VITAL practicum is that while some skills can be taught in the classroom, for the most part, you have to jump in and figure things out. Ask questions and don’t be afraid to make mistakes along the way.  At this point, I plan to continue to work with the VITAL team during the upcoming semester and dive more into the results that we have been working to collect during the pilot study.

Cheers!
-Sage

 

 

Greetings,

The stress of finding and securing a practicum has finally started to fade! The application process itself has been a valuable learning experience. I learned about the importance of building relationships with individuals in public health and also the importance of asking for help. I can say without much hesitation that I would not have been able to secure such a fitting internship without support from the practicum team, TA’s and professors. Reflecting on this has helped me set goals for next semester and the rest of my career.

I am thankful to be working with a UNC team based in North Carolina and in Hanoi, Vietnam. The pilot program is called VITAL and is funded by NIDA and NIH. The project’s full title is Adaptation of the Friendship Bench counseling intervention to improve mental health and HIV care engagement outcome among people living with HIV who inject drugs. I will be working on two primary deliverables, including an exit interview to assess the acceptability of the program from a provider perspective. Also, I will be working on a targeted review of some of the existing literature on the topic. Both of these projects are things I am only slightly familiar with and especially for the targeted review, there will be a learning curve. However, I am excited to flex some new mental muscles and contribute to an important topic in the field of mental health.

So far, the practicum has been wonderful!  My teammates and the leads have been extremely welcoming and I feel like my efforts are valued. I have been working on the provider exit interviews for the past few weeks and it has been a challenge to nail the right number of questions and also have limitations so that the amount of translation is not overwhelming. I have been examining exit type interviews used in similar projects, which has been very helpful as models. The remote aspect has not been a challenge and I feel we are all getting more used to a hybrid school and work environment. I am looking forward to working more with the VITAL team and getting a chance to gain new skills as I work on the targeted review.

Thanks for reading!

-Sage