scholarly journals Effectiveness of Using Community Mental Health Workers in a Community Mental Health Programme of a Rural Health Center in a Lower Middle Income Country

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
R.G. Bhooma Goud ◽  
G. Jayaram ◽  
J. Pradeep
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Middle Income Country ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Mental Health Programme ◽  
Rural Health Center ◽  
Community Mental Health Workers ◽  
Health Programme

Transcultural issues in the dynamics of a Balint clinical reflection group for community mental health workers

2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 366-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Leggett
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Group Process ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Clinical Work ◽  
Reflection Group ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
Community Mental Health Workers

The author presents transcultural issues in the content, process, and group dynamics of consecutive meetings of a Balint clinical reflection group for community mental health workers at Inala, Australia. Balint work and the context and evolution of the group process are briefly described, as is the consultative research methodology. The process of a Balint group meeting is reported in detail, following the author’s consultation with group members. The collaborative work of a culturally diverse team of mental health professionals is examined in the context of discussion of a practitioner–patient relationship in which transcultural, gender, and family conflicts were the focus of affective and cognitive dissonance. For mental health workers engaging with communities of cultural diversity, Balint reflection groups can facilitate insight into cultural countertransferences that adversely affect clinical work. The group served to support the caseworkers’ engagement with patients of different cultures, and provided a safe environment for the creative consideration and exploration in fantasy of the emotional pressures and complex ethical dilemmas related to boundaries in transcultural client–practitioner relationships, including those in which open discussion would otherwise be avoided.

Interview with Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei: The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany Dawson ◽  
Zeina Azzam
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Structural Damage ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Community Education ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Psychosocial Support ◽  
Mental Health Programme ◽  
Health Programme

This October 2015 interview with director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei addresses how mental health professionals care for themselves and each other in an environment with little break from sustained conflict. Mental health workers in the Gaza Strip must cope with the resource shortage generated by the Israeli blockade and their own trauma while aiding others. The United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimates that over one-third of Gaza's children require direct and specialized psychosocial support as a result of Israel's Operation Protective Edge (OPE), the fifty-day war on Gaza in the summer of 2014, and earlier assaults. GCMHP provides services free of charge at clinics, community centers, and by phone via a twenty-four-hour hotline, and since its founding, has served more than twenty thousand Gazans with capacity-building programs and trainings, community education, scientific research, and human rights advocacy. GCMHP provided mental health support to the community both during and after each of the three large-scale Israeli assaults on Gaza (in 2008, 2012, and 2014), helping the community to work through both collective and individual trauma. Over twenty-one hundred Palestinians, five hundred of them children, were killed during OPE and another eleven thousand injured. During OPE an airstrike killed twenty-eight members of Abu Jamei's extended family, including nineteen children, as they broke their Ramadan fast. It was the largest loss of life within a single family at that point in the war. The structural damage was similarly catastrophic, leaving over one hundred thousand Gazans homeless. Long after the cease-fire, the psychological wounds sustained during consecutive assaults continue to disrupt everyday life.

scholarly journals Where there is no psychiatrist: A mental health programme in Sierra Leone

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Pino Alonso ◽  
Brian Price ◽  
Abdul R Conteh ◽  
Carmen Valle ◽  
Patrick E Turay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Mental Health Programme ◽  
Drug Use Disorders ◽  
Health Programme

<p><strong>Background.</strong> For most low- and middle-income countries, mental health remains a neglected area, despite the recognised burden associated with neuropsychiatric conditions and the inextricable link to other public health priorities.</p><p><strong>Objectives.</strong> To describe the results of a free outpatient mental health programme delivered by non-specialist health workers in Makeni, Sierra Leone between July 2008 and May 2012. </p><p><strong>Methods.</strong> A nurse and two counsellors completed an 8-week training course focused on the identification and management of seven priority conditions: psychosis, bipolar disorder, depression, mental disorders due to medical conditions, developmental and behavioural disorders, alcohol and drug use disorders, and dementia. The World Health Organization recommendations on basic mental healthcare packages were followed to establish treatment for each condition. </p><p><strong>Results.</strong> A total of 549 patients was assessed and diagnosed as suffering from psychotic disorders (<em>n</em>=295, 53.7%), manic episodes (<em>n</em>=69, 12.5%), depressive episodes (<em>n</em>=53, 9.6%), drug use disorders (<em>n</em>=182, 33.1%), dementia (<em>n</em>=30, 5.4%), mental disorders due to medical conditions (<em>n</em>=39, 7.1%), and developmental disorders (<em>n</em>=46, 8.3%). Of these, 417 patients received pharmacological therapy and 70.7% were rated as much or very much improved. Of those who could not be offered medication, 93.4% dropped out of the programme after the first visit. </p><p><strong>Conclusions.</strong> The identification and treatment of mental disorders must be considered an urgent public health priority in low- and middle-income countries. Trained primary health workers can deliver safe and effective treatment for mental disorders as a feasible alternative to ease the scarcity of mental health specialists in developing countries.</p>

Has there been a Failure to Prepare and Support Parish-Based Clergy in their Role as Frontline Community Mental Health Workers: A Review

1995 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Weaver
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Health Network ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Community Mental Health Workers ◽  
Do So

Addresses the issue that parish-based clergy, functioning as frontline community mental health workers, often do so with inadequate training and limited support from the mental health community. Claims that although a clergyperson is as likely to have a severely mentally distressed person seek her or his assistance as is a mental health specialist, there is inadequate research on the function of clergy in the mental health network or the psychological dynamics of religion. Suggests that clergy can serve most effectively in the mental health network as skilled facilitators, identifying the needs of persons, and connecting them to a larger circle of specialized helpers. Argues that the mental health and religious communities share many common values and goals and need to work together more effectively for the best interest of those they are called to serve.

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