Grant: Team Grant: GACD 2021: NCD risk prevention across the life course - Open Pool

Vietnamese youth experience many risk factors for poor mental health and well-being, which may lead to poor outcomes over the lifespan. Despite this, resources and supports to promote mental well-being and mitigate risk factors for poor mental health among youth are severely limited in the country. Risk factors identified among Vietnamese youth include pressure for academic success and high academic work load, social and emotional isolation, conflict with parents and teachers, gender roles and struggles with sexual identity. The socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 will likely exacerbate these challenges. Life skills, social and emotional learning and self-management techniques can support youth to navigate challenges that, if unaddressed, may lead to more serious mental health problems. Our proposal is to adapt an evidence-based intervention that promotes life-skills, social and emotional learning and self-management at a population level and is delivered via a mobile app. The intervention will be adapted for use in the Vietnamese context and for delivery via an app in collaboration with a Youth Advisory Council. We will then test it among secondary school students in three Vietnamese provinces and will assess outcomes related to implementation, mental health and well-being, risk factor mitigation and equitable access with a view to scaling-up up the model across the country.