We are excited to announce the publication of the protocol article “Traditional Healers Working with Primary Care and Mental Health for Early Intervention in Psychosis in Young Persons: Protocol for the feasibility cluster randomized controlled trial”. The HOPE project, led by Prof. Saeed Farooq, is a collaborative initiative of Keele University UK, Khyber Medical University Pakistan, and Lady Reading Hospital Pakistan, funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC UK). This article presents a model for working with traditional healers in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs).

More than half of patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) in LMICs, seek treatment from traditional and spiritual healers initially. This prolongs the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) unnecessarily. The HOPE study aims to develop culturally appropriate interventions to involve traditional and spiritual healers (TSH) to work together with primary care practitioners (PCPs) and psychiatrists through task shifting for early detection, referral, and treatment of the First Episode of Psychosis (FEP).

Following the extensive community fieldwork and mapping exercise to compile a database of traditional healers, the data collection for the qualitative phase and focused ethnographies has been completed. 

The preliminary findings informed the draft of the feasibility protocol that has been registered at ISRTCN Registry: https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN75347421. The trial started recruitment on 1 May 2023. The protocol for THE HOPE study was published in BMJ Open on 14 July 2023: bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/13/7/e072471.full.pdf.