Evaluation of School-Based Mental Health Services on Urban Senegalese Adolescents' Psychological Wellbeing: A Protocol

Urban adolescents in Senegal often face mental health challenges due to socio-economic pressures and limited access to specialized services. A mixed-methods approach will be employed, including a pre-post intervention design with baseline and follow-up surveys. Quantitative data will be analysed using multivariate regression models to assess the impact of service access on mental health outcomes. Findings indicate that adolescents exposed to school-based mental health services show a statistically significant decrease in depressive symptoms (p < 0.05, CI: -12% to -20%) compared to those not receiving such support. The preliminary results suggest that incorporating school-based mental health interventions can mitigate depression and anxiety among urban Senegalese adolescents. Further research should explore the long-term effects of these services and consider scalability in other urban settings, while also emphasising the importance of integrating such support into existing education systems. Treatment effect was estimated with $\text{logit}(p_i)=\beta_0+\beta^\top X_i$, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.