Social Media and Web based intervention for Alcohol and Drug use

preventionMuthoni Mathai

Snr Lecturer, Department of PsychiatryChair- Sub committee on ADA CHS, UON

28.02.2015

University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 1 Certified http://www.uonbi.ac.ke

Objective

The objective of this presentation is to Look at the limitations in providing services

in awareness and treatment of Substance Use disorders

To highlight the potential in using peer driven programs

To describe the potential of the web and social media

Introduction

There exists a gap in the provision of information, assessment and management of problems related to the harmful use of Alcohol and other psychoactive substances at the College of health Sciences

Increasing number of students

According to the 2013-14 CHS Annual report the Year one enrollment- 1423 undergrads and 307 post grads

Limitations

noted by the DA Sub-committee at CHS - 2014 A Substance Abuse Prevention Unit has yet

to be established There was no space No Funds yet to further develop the

Substance Abuse Prevention Unit as proposed in the Operational Plan

Alternative Option

There was need to explore other means of carrying out prevention

The internet provided a virtual unexploited space that could be explored

Universities around the world were exploiting this potential

Contact should be made with the student leaders and interested students to further work on how best to explore this space

Virtual Prevention Unit

The committee decided to work with the students of the CHS to:

develop a concept on the use of the web and social media in the intervention of drug use as a virtual prevention unit

Social Media Team

A social media working group was formed in 2014 including:

Students of the CHS- 13 Some committee members- 3 Members from department of Psychiatry

Mental health research project- 3 IT specialists from CHS- 2

usage of social media at CHS- School of Medicine

A questionnaire was designed to establish students’ use of the social media

A total of 303 undergraduate students from the school of medicine (year 1, 2, 3 and 4) were recruited.

Males 162/ Females 141 Majority were between 19- 25Yrs 

Findings of survey

Current use Facebook Twitter Google+ Instagram WhatsApp College websites

At least once a day124 78 21 23 204 39

2 -3 times a week69 37 58 47 57 42

Once a week67 45 52 57 15 69

Occasionally27 107 65 74 16 138

Never16 36 107 102 11 15

Total303 303 303 303 303 303

All the students 100% of the interviewed, visit social media sites.

Facebook has the highest visits of at-least-once-a-day (40.9%)

67% were using Whatsapp at least once a day

Only 0.53% never used facebook

The concept

The overall aim of the project is: To develop a peer driven interactional portal

that informs, assesses and intervenes to promote mental health issues around SUD at the CHS.

Aim 1: To create an interactional website

Provides regular information on alcohol and drugs. Self assessment tools for Substance Use Disorders

and related psychological disorders. A moderated question/answer interaction base Has a “my story page” to post- real life experience

or case studies, and creative stories/ pictures Peer moderated information boards. *“live chat rooms” for group therapy

AIM 2: Peer Counseling

Develop a peer counseling and “chat room” moderation manual

Train PG students from the mental health programs

Train undergraduate students as peer counselors to do mobile/ online counseling, moderation of chat rooms.

AIM 3: Linkages

The proposed website will be linked to the CHS Website as well as the Schools, departments and students facebook pages.

Integrate students into the program to regularly populate student social media accounts with information

Activities carried out within this concept:

Reviewing literature on Social media in the prevention and management of SUD.

A prototype website developed by the members from IT specialists.

Awareness Video- Students SOM

The Mental Health Student Team

A group of CHS students had the idea to start developing material

They raised funds and with support of the committee made a Youtube video on Alcohol abuse and other mental health problems- Mental Health Student Team video 2014 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R0oKropzq4

Budget to develop the Website

Item Description Qty Unit Price (KES) Total Price (KES)

1 Hosting and Domain name 1 10,000 10,000

2 HTML/PHP Development 1 25,000 25,000

3 Content Management System Integration (CMS)

1 2,000 2,000

4 Feedback Form/Blog/User Interface Design/MSQL DB

1 3,000 3,000

5 Training & Support Alot 10,000 10,000

Total 50,000

Action Plan for 2015

Implement Website Student membership drive and involve students

from the other schools of the CHS To support and work with the students to develop

more media based content for the project. To explore different aspects of “live chat rooms” To explore private public partnership in this project To write a project proposal for funding in order to

further develop and scale up the Social media project to include evaluation of impact

Acknowledgements

All the members of the Sub committee on ADA CHS- Antony Ayieko and Eric Guantai Students SOM- Taseer Feroze Din Kim Mangoa Linda Nyamute Dipali Unadkad Poonamjeet Kaur Neha Sahi Ruth Lucinde Leah Itote Eva Lang’at Mwoka Meggie Dept Of Psychiatry & MH research project- Manasi Kumar, Anne Mbwayo, George

Khamati CHS- IT Mark Wanyonyi PRIME-K IT: Mark Sigei

Would you like to work with us to advance this project:

Contact:Dr M. Mathai 0727329904Email. muthonimathai@gmail.comOr walk into the Mental Health Research centre

at the the KNH department of Mental health (old hospital wing) and talk to George Khamati

University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 21 Certified http://www.uonbi.ac.ke