Global mental health is an emerging field of research and practice which emphasises increasing access to mental health care worldwide. In countries with scarce mental health professionals, innovation in cultural adaptation of treatments and task-sharing with non-specialists have reduced the treatment gap for depression and other common mental disorders. Speakers will include pioneers of therapies which have arisen in low-resource settings such as 'The Friendship Bench', 'Thinking Healthy', and 'TENDAI'.
It is timely to recognise the relevance of global mental health, acknowledging the obstacles that the UK and other high-income countries also face. The friendship bench for instance is now being adopted in the US. In the UK we are striving to improve equity in access to care for common mental disorders, including for those with co-morbidities. We also aim to grow and nurture a more diverse group of mental health researchers. This session will discuss lessons learned in providing mental health care in low and middle income countries, including the challenges of task-sharing, which have implications for less-resourced areas in high income countries. We will further share examples of equitable research collaborations and mutual capacity strengthening between the global north and the global south.
This session aims to provide you with:
- A greater awareness of the global relevance of global mental health.
- An understanding of recent innovation and evolution in scaling up psychological treatments in primary health care and through perinatal services in low and middle income countries and how this may guide approaches for less-resourced areas in high income countries.
- An understanding of task-sharing approaches to improving both mental health and adherence to self-management for people living with HIV in countries with high HIV-burden, including challenges and limitations of task-sharing and potential linkages with care in the UK for those with multi-morbidity.
- Knowledge of how to build equitable research collaborations and mutual capacity strengthening between the global north and the global south.
Chair: Mariana Pinto da Costa, King's College London, United Kingdom
Jermaine Dambi
Siham Sikander
Melanie Abas
