South Asia carries the burden of a rapidly changing climate with floods and extreme heat. These disasters further translate into mental health distress, financial stress and detrimental effects on well-being, with women being the most vulnerable. This study aims to demonstrate that mental health screening, referral and resilience-building group sessions can be successfully administered by community health workers and primary health facility staff in a flood-affected rural population of women in Pakistan and provide evidence on the effectiveness of this approach for improving their mental health status.

A quasi-experimental design with a comparison group will be used for the study, preceded by a formative phase. The formative phase evaluated the feasibility of mental health screening by Lady Health Workers (LHWs) in flood-affected areas using a qualitative approach such as focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. Manuals developed by the study team of mPareshan will be used to train LHWs, Lady Health Supervisors (LHS) and health facility staff. Following this, LHWs will briefly screen women aged 18 to 49 years, administer awareness-raising and resilience-building sessions and refer women who screen positive for depression or anxiety to a primary health facility. Physicians at the health facility will confirm the diagnosis and provide counselling to mild-moderate cases, while severe cases would be referred to specialists. Statistical evaluation of quantitative data and thematic content analysis of qualitative data will be conducted to assess the feasibility and impact of the intervention. This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov with number NCT06756165.

The study acquired ethical approval from the Ethical Review Committee at Aga Khan University (2024-10475-30776) and the National Bioethics Committee (4-87/NBC-1158/23/481) in Islamabad. Approval was obtained from relevant provincial authorities. The trial will adhere to the ethical principles of autonomy, anonymity, confidentiality, equity and respect. All eligible participants will be provided with informed consent, details regarding the purpose and procedure of the study, and the right to withdraw at any time. Data and information will be anonymised and stored securely. Dissemination of the results of the trial will occur after its completion to stakeholders, participants and the public.

NCT06756165.

Programmes based on early childhood development (ECD) services play a vital role in improving child health and developmental outcomes. Across many countries, these programmes target children under 5 years of age—including those who are healthy, at risk or with developmental disorders—and are implemented in governmental and non-governmental organisations in both the health and non-health sectors globally. This protocol outlines a scoping review designed to systematically map and synthesise existing evidence on the components, implementation strategies and delivery mechanisms of ECD services worldwide. The review aims to inform the development of optimised and comprehensive interventions that support holistic child development.

This review will be conducted by Arksey and O’Malley’s framework and its recent advances. Several databases, including PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Science Direct and Web of Science, Scientific Information Database, Magiran, IranMedex and Barakat knowledge network system, will be initially searched for studies up to December 2024. All searches will be done for published or unpublished articles/reports without time and language restrictions. Two researchers will independently carry out screening of the included studies and extraction of data. Any discrepancies will be resolved by consensus. In case no initial consensus is reached, a third researcher will be consulted to make a decision. The findings will be synthesised through the content-analysis method.

The findings of this review may offer a novel perspective for developing a comprehensive package of ECD services within the Iranian health system. Furthermore, it provides a detailed roadmap for researchers and stakeholders aiming to enhance child health and prevent developmental disorders. This study received ethical approval from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (ID: IR.TBZMED.REC.1404.139), with no ethical concerns as it involves no patient participation or interventions.

The high prevalence of loneliness in young people, aged 10–24 years, is increasingly recognised as an urgent global health concern. The experience of loneliness is linked to a wide range of adverse physical and mental health outcomes. A lack of loneliness scales that can accurately capture the authentic experiences of young people has hampered progress in our understanding of the aetiology and sequelae of youth loneliness, as well as the development of preventative policies and interventions. Here, we provide a protocol for developing and validating an age-sensitive loneliness scale for young people aged 10–24 years: the Youth Loneliness Scale (YLS). The scale is designed to measure loneliness in the general population of young people in the UK.

The scale is coproduced with young people from design to dissemination. The scale development process follows a three-phased, multistep approach that includes item development, scale construction and scale evaluation. Item development is achieved via deductive (literature review) and inductive methods (arts workshops and focus groups), as well as a Delphi survey of experts (by profession and experience) for initial refinement. The scale is then constructed via pretesting items in cognitive interviews with young people, and exploratory testing for preliminary evaluation and refinement. Finally, the scale is administered in confirmatory testing, where a full psychometric evaluation is provided.

The project was approved by the Queen Mary University of London Research Ethics Committee (Reference: 2024-0231-341) as the lead site and subsequently endorsed by the University of Manchester Research Ethics Committee. The YLS scale and results of its psychometric evaluation will be published open-access. The protocol provided here will allow researchers to evaluate the final scale generated against the plans set out. We also encourage the use and adaptation of the protocol to develop age-sensitive loneliness scales for other populations.