To understand the long-term effects of early child development programs on child and maternal mental health outcomes, Drs. Itziar Familiar-Lopez and Michael Boivin have been awarded a $3.5M, 5-year R01 grant from the National Institue of Mental Health for their project, "Congolese mother and child mental health in response to early child development interventions." Based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this study assesses the mental health benefits for mothers and children who participated in an earlier intervention study, in which mothers were trained weekly over the course of a year on practical strategies for enriching a child's early learning environment in the home, as well as nutritional strategies for supporting optimal developmental and physical health.
