Digital technology for treating and preventing mental disorders in low-income and middle-income countries: a narrative review of the literature
“Few individuals living with mental disorders around the globe have access to mental health care, yet most have access to a mobile phone. Digital technology holds promise for improving access to, and quality of, mental health care. We reviewed evidence on the use of mobile, online, and other remote technologies for treatment and prevention of mental disorders in low-income and middle-income countries. Of the 49 studies identified, most were preliminary evaluations of feasibility and acceptability. The findings were promising, showing the potential effectiveness of online, text-messaging, and telephone support interventions.”
Mental Health Among Displaced People and Refugees: Making the Case for Action at The World Bank Group
“Forcibly displaced people’s mental health needs have often been neglected in response plans. Yet meeting these needs is critical to help displaced persons overcome trauma and rebuild their lives. Without appropriate mental health care, forcibly displaced people will often be unable to benefit fully from other forms of support that are provided to them. […] A shared commitment is needed from national and international actors to champion mental health parity in the provision of health and social services, including in humanitarian emergencies. High priority should go to identifying alternative sources of financing for mental health parity in health systems.”
https://www.mhinnovation.net/sites/default/files/downloads/resource/WBG_Web_MHDP_2017.pdf
TED Talk: Why I train grandmothers to treat depression
“Dixon Chibanda is one of 12 psychiatrists in Zimbabwe – for a population of more than 16 million. Realizing that his country would never be able to scale traditional methods of treating those with mental health issues, Chibanda helped to develop a beautiful solution powered by a limitless resource: grandmothers. In this extraordinary, inspirational talk, learn more about the friendship bench program, which trains grandmothers in evidence-based talk therapy and brings care, and hope, to those in need.”
Guided self-help intervention reduces refugees’ psychological distress and improves wellbeing in humanitarian crises
| Guided self-help intervention reduces refugees’ psychological distress and improves wellbeing in humanitarian crises “First randomised trial of its kind finds multimedia guided self-help intervention can be delivered rapidly to large numbers of people in low-resource humanitarian settings by non-specialists with minimal training. […] The study is the first randomised trial of a guided self-help group intervention in a low-resource humanitarian setting. Although longer follow-up is needed to determine the long-term effects of the intervention, the authors say that guided self-help could be a promising first-line strategy to address the vast gap in mental health support in areas where humanitarian access is difficult, such as South Sudan and Syria. |
Where There Is No Psychiatrist. A Mental Health Care Manual.
Where There Is No Psychiatrist – A Mental Health Care Manual. Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2018
“This practical manual of mental health care is vital for community health workers, primary care nurses, social workers and primary care doctors, particularly in low-resource settings. This guide gives the reader a basic understanding of mental illness by describing more than thirty clinical problems associated with mental illness and uses a problem-solving approach to guide the reader through their assessment and management. Mental health issues as they arise in specific contexts are described – in refugee camps, in school health programmes, as well as in mental health promotion.”
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/where-there-is-no-psychiatrist/47578A845CAFC7E23A181749A4190B54
Children and Adolescents – Guidelines Position Paper on Complex PTSD
For the past two decades, there has been substantial debate about whether there are qualitatively different symptom profiles that can develop in children from different types of traumatic events and life circumstances. The term “complex trauma” is often used to describe both the presumed causes and the consequences of exposure to traumatic stressors when the child has experienced other significant adversities and is manifesting more severe clinical presentations. The interest in an additional descriptive term or diagnosis has been fueled by trauma-focused treatment trials pointing to the fact that the experiences of many children involve more than the trauma and more than trauma-specific symptoms (e.g., children in foster care, residential treatment, juvenile justice). Efforts to classify these clinical presentations have included a proposed Developmental Trauma Disorder (Ford, et al, 2013).
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS)
The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) the world’s premier trauma organization dedicated to trauma treatment, education, research and prevention. Through this organization, professionals share information about the effects of trauma, seeking to reduce traumatic stressors and their immediate and long-term consequences. The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) was founded in 1985 for professionals to share information about the effects of trauma. ISTSS is dedicated to the discovery and dissemination of knowledge about policy, program and service initiatives that seek to reduce traumatic stressors and their immediate and long-term consequences.
How to support survivors of gender-based violence when a GBV actor is not available in your area
A STEP-BY-STEP POCKET GUIDE FOR HUMANITARIAN PRACTITIONERS
The Pocket Guide and its supporting materials provide all humanitarian practitioners with information on:
- How to support a survivor of gender-based violence (GBV)
- Who discloses their experience of GBV with you
- In a context where there is no GBV actor (including a GBV referral pathway or a GBV focal point) available.
Background note and FAQs can be accessed here.
User guide can be accessed here.
https://gbvguidelines.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/GBV_PocketGuide021718.pdf
Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of refugees: The Lancet Global Health podcast
The Lancet Global Health‘s Nina Putnis speaks to Wietse Tol about his research on reducing psychological distress in female South Sudanese refugees, and the implications of this research for refugees and displaced people worldwide. Listen to the podcast below:
PROBLEM MANAGEMENT PLUS (PM+): Individual psychological help for adults impaired by distress in communities exposed to adversity
With this manual, the World Health Organization (WHO) is responding to requests from colleagues around the world who seek guidance on psychological interventions for people exposed to adversity.
The manual describes a scalable psychological intervention called Problem Management Plus (PM+) for adults impaired by distress in communities who are exposed to adversity. Aspects of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) have been changed to make them feasible in communities that do not have many specialists. To ensure maximum use, the intervention is developed in such a way that it can help people with depression, anxiety and stress, whether or not exposure to adversity has caused these problems. It can be applied to improve aspects of mental health and psychosocial well-being no matter how severe people’s problems are.
The manual can be downloaded for free in 13 different languages here.
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/206417/WHO_MSD_MER_16.2_eng.pdf?sequence=1
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 9
- Go to the next page