A large Wagnerian grandmother. A great-aunt known as 'the Buchenwald chicken'. Shame and misery on the sports field. A club-footed father who disappeared to the golf course every weekend. How do these experiences lead to a career in psychology? Able-Bodied is a unique account of how being the son of a disabled man and the product of an eccentric family brought Leslie Swartz to a professional life working with disability issues. At the heart of this tale is a moving account of a complex, troubled, but loving father-son relationship, a relationship that spurred a lifetime of trying to understand and come to grips with what different bodies and different abilities mean for us all. With wit, compassion, frankness and irreverence, Swartz considers the challenges faced by families, academics, institutions and everyone trying to make a positive difference to society. Poignant and often hilarious, Able-Bodied is a tale of conflict, achievement, pain and triumph. It is a fascinating blend of personal narrative, anecdote and reflection on society, medicine and ethics.
For more information, or to attain a copy, please contact the author at: lswartz@sun.ac.za
Please join with us all in celebrating the launch of the Federal Ministry of Health’s (FMOH) National Mental Health Strategy (2012/13 – 2015/16). This is a critical milestone in our journey towards the development of accessible, affordable and acceptable mental health care for all Ethiopians. The Strategy was developed with extensive input from a wide range of stakeholders. As a result, this is a Strategy for action which is workable in our setting and has the support of those who will play a critical part in its implementation. Therefore, a heart-felt appreciation is in order to all who graciously gave their time and input to the development of the Strategy.
For more information please contact:
Dr. Tedla W. Giorgis, Mental Health Advisor to the Ministry of Health, Ethiopia
Mr. Kassahun Sime, Focal Person for Mental Health at the Ministry of Health, Ethiopia
PLOS Medicine Policy Forum
articles provide a platform for health policy makers from around the world to discuss the challenges and opportunities in improving health care to their constituencies.
Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health: Integration in Research, Policy, and Practice
Citation: Collins PY, Insel TR, Chockalingam A, Daar A, Maddox YT (2013) Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health: Integration in Research, Policy, and Practice. PLoS Med 10(4): e1001434. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001434
Published: April 30, 2013
Summary Points
Mental illnesses frequently co-occur with peripartum conditions, HIV-related disease, and non-communicable diseases. Care for mental disorders should be integrated into primary care and other global health priority programs.
Integration of care for mental, neurological, and substance use (MNS) disorders should (1) occur through intersectoral collaboration and health system-wide approaches; (2) use evidence-based interventions; (3) be implemented with sensitivity to environmental influences; and (4) attend to prevention and treatment across the life course.
Integration of care for MNS disorders with care for other conditions can occur through assimilation of activities, policies, or organizational structures at local, national, and global levels.
Plans for health-related development targets post-2015 should consider the tremendous burden of disability associated with MNS disorders and co-morbid conditions.
This paper is the first in a series of five articles providing a global perspective on integrating mental health.
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
Funding: No funding sources were used for preparation of this manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Abbreviations: DALY, disability adjusted life year; GBD, global burden of disease; GCGMH, Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health; LMIC, low- and middle-income country; MNS, mental, neurological, and substance use; mhGAP, Mental Health Gap Action Programme; MDG, Millennium Development Goal; NCD, non-communicable disease; NIMH, National Institute of Mental Health; NGO, non-governmental organization; WHO, World Health Organization
Provenance: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Content: Brief country profile Kenya, overview mental health care Kenya, report on meetings with USPKenya, Mathari State Mental Hospital, BasicNeeds Kenya, Outspan hospital counseling services, AMHF (Africa Mental Health Foundation), mental health activist Sitawa Wafula, Tawakal psycho-trauma clinic for people from Somalia, Peter C. Alderman trauma project, and more. Info, links, few pictures, conclusions.
In January 2013, I had the opportunity to extent my stay in Kenya, after providing a MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors Without Borders) mental health and basic counseling training for a group of Somali nurses in Nairobi. After these 2 weeks training I arranged a couple of visits and interviews with people working in, or using/surviving, mental health services in Kenya. I wanted to meet the people I knew for quite a while via internet (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, my blog) and I wanted to satisfy my curiosity. I wanted to get some insight into the mechanisms and contexts in mental health care Kenya. Find positive vibes, plans and developments. Fostering hope, but also knowing where one must start and invest, in order to achieve improvements.
The GETHealth Summit, 6-7 February 2013 in the United Nations, New York City, aimed ‘to bridge the health workforce gap in developing countries through new partnerships between innovators in Global Health Education and Information Technology. The Summit brought together leaders in health, education and IT to discuss and develop initiatives designed to empower providers in the most resource-limited communities in the world’. It were very inspiring and entertaining days: About 150 optimistic and dedicated people from around the World, a bulk of knowledge and experience and plenty of successes and recommendations (and a few failures). I would like to bring across the main messages from this summit in ’20 golden tips’.
No Health Withoutt Mental Health: Lessons Unlearned
An article consisting of five cogent paragrpahs on MH and NCDs,
Bulletin of the World Health Organization, January 2013--91: 3-3A
CEO of Member Care Associates and Coordinator of the Mental Health and Psychosocial Working Group of the Geneva-based NGO Forum for Health, Kelly O’Donnell, has recently written three resource articles on global mental health (GMH). The purpose of these articles is to provide user-friendly overviews of the field of global mental health, helping to orient people to this domain, especially students and practitioners in the mental health and overall health fields.
Resource 1. Global Mental Health: A Resource Map for Connecting and Contributing (Psychology International, July 2011).
This brief article provides a 60 minute overview of GMH via links to 10 written/multimedia resources on the web. It’s a great way to quickly see the big picture.
Click on this link to access the article: http://www.apa.org/international/pi/2011/07/global-health.aspx
Resource 2. Global Mental Health: Finding Your Niches and Networks (Psychology International, March 2012).
This brief article builds upon the first article. It identifies 10 overlapping areas of GMH (niche-nets) with links to current web resources for each area.
Click on this link to access the article: http://www.apa.org/international/pi/2012/03/global-health.aspx
Resource 3. Global Mental Health: A Resource Primer for Exploring the Domain (International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation, July 2012).
This is a major research article with an extensive listing of GMH resources, prioritizing those from the last 10 years. The resources are categorized into six areas: organizations, publications, conferences, training, human rights, and humanitarian. It is also foundational for the previous two articles as well as the new web site, GMH-Map—part of a collaborative project to identify and share GMH resources widely.
Click on this link to access the article: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxnbWhtYXB8Z3g6ZjBmYTI4MTFmMDNhZWU4
List of 30 funding or grant organizations, from the very small funding initiatives to the big global donors, from conventional funding to innovative online fundraising and loans.
It is a challenge for all sectors in Global Mental Health to get or safeguard finance. Think of anti-stigma campaigns, advocacy agencies, rehabilitation/housing projects, mental health care facilities, educations and research.
This list is a attempt to help people and organizations in the field to 'see the wood for the trees'.
Comments and additions are welcome.
A third of all countries in the world have no mental health policy or plan. In the African region, this proportion is nearly half. Moreover, nearly 40% of countries that do have policies have not revised them since 1990 (Lancet series on global mental health, 2007).
Policies are strengthened by laws that back them; but 31% of the world’s population live in a country with no mental health law. Even having a mental health act is not enough, since discrimination against people with mental disorders is sometimes codified in law.
To learn more about the status of mental health policies and legislation in low- and middle-income countries and guidelines for reform, browse these pages.