Northwestern Researcher, Amelia Van Pelt, PhD, MPH, Awarded NIMH Grant to Advance Youth Suicide Prevention in Botswana

November 4, 2025

Pictured Above: Amelia Van Pelt, PhD, MPH

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science (CDIS), the Department of Medical Social Sciences (MSS), and the University of Botswana Department of Psychology have received a three-year R34 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to support a new suicide prevention initiative for youth in Botswana.

Suicide in low- and middle-income countries is a growing crisis, as 73% of the world’s total suicides occur in these settings. Youth experience disproportionate burden, where suicide ranks as the third leading cause of death for individuals aged 15-29 years worldwide. Botswana’s youth have high need with a suicide mortality rate among the top 25 globally. Despite this public health problem, evidence-based interventions for suicide prevention among youth are not available, particularly in school settings.

Co-led by Northwestern University faculty: Multiple Principal Investigator Amelia Van Pelt, PhD, MPH (CDIS and MSS); Co-investigators Rinad Beidas, PhD, (CDIS and MSS); Jonah Meyerhoff, PhD (Preventive Medicine and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences); and Zabin Patel, PhD, MPH (Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and MSS) and University of Botswana faculty: (Multiple Principal Investigator Lingani Mbakile-Mahlanza, PhD; Co-Investigator Kesego Mathoothe, MA) with additional expert consultants (Shari Jager-Hyman, PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and Shannon Dorsey, PhD at the University of Washington), this grant seeks to adapt and implement the Safety Planning Intervention for youth aged 15-24 years in Botswana.

This research will employ rigorous implementation science methods to co-design and implement a culturally adapted intervention in public schools across Gaborone, Botswana. Specifically, this research will 1) utilize community-engaged methods to adapt the safety planning intervention, 2) conduct contextual inquiry to identify implementation determinants and develop specific implementation strategies, and 3) deploy mixed methods to evaluate both clinical outcomes (suicidal ideation and behavior) and implementation outcomes (feasibility, acceptability, appropriateness, fidelity) via a hybrid effectiveness-implementation type III trial in six public schools in the southeast region of Gaborone. This work will develop a novel approach to task-shift delivery of the intervention to guidance and counselling teachers to overcome the barrier of limited mental health personnel in this setting.

“We are committed to developing strategies that are practical for schools, effective for students, and informed by the communities we serve.” Van Pelt said.

This research will lay the foundation for future scale-up of suicide prevention across schools in the country and will address a critical public health gap, which represents a key step in achieving the long-term goal of reducing death by suicide among youth in Botswana.