Donor: Fund Marleen Temmerman
Research Duration: Sep 2025 to 2027
Partnerships/Collaboration : Coast General Teaching & Referral Hospital, County Government of Mombasa, and ICRH Belgium
Healing through Talking is an implementation research project designed to strengthen mental health recovery for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) by improving attendance and completion of post-SGBV counselling services. While counselling is a critical component of survivor-centred care, many survivors do not complete the recommended counselling sessions, limiting long-term healing and psychosocial outcomes.
The main objective of this implementation research is to implement 3 interventions to determine how the interventions change/increase counselling session completion rates. The three interventions are:
- The standard of care for GBV counselling sessions post a physical assault
- Group therapy/counselling (with 6-8 survivors per cohort, clustered according to age and sex) was offered after routine counselling for those interested
- Hybrid in-person (1st visit) and virtual (following visits) counselling for those who have missed appointments.
This study uses an adaptive intervention design without randomization to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured psychosocial support (PSS) counselling intervention at increasing survivor counselling session completion rates for survivors at GBVRC. This design will have the intervention components (standard of care, hybrid virtual and group sessions) introduced alone or in combination, and adapted over time based on participant engagement, retention, and feasibility. Each of these interventions seeks to transform service delivery by introducing needs-based approaches that acknowledge survivors’ diverse circumstances.
Additionally, ICRHK will assess the effectiveness of virtual sessions as a secondary outcome using an exploratory approach, as historical data shows that most of the survivors are below 17 years of age, which may result in constraints on providing informed consent and assessing/ownership of mobile phones. ICRH-Belgium, which has developed online counselling sessions and content on psychoeducation related to sexual violence, will assist in designing the hybrid model. With the rise of telemedicine in Kenya, we are doing this now to ensure those who are most marginalized do not get left behind is key.
The findings from Healing through Talking will generate practical evidence to inform post-SGBV mental health programming and policy, supporting the design of more responsive, accessible, and effective counselling services.
