scholarly journals Identifying pathways for large-scale implementation of a school-based mental health programme in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: a theory-driven approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. ii112-ii123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olakunle Alonge ◽  
Anna Chiumento ◽  
Hesham M Hamoda ◽  
Eman Gaber ◽  
Zill-e- Huma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Programme Implementation ◽  
School Based ◽  
Mental Health Programme ◽  
Health Programme

Abstract Globally there is a substantial burden of mental health problems among children and adolescents. Task-shifting/task-sharing mental health services to non-specialists, e.g. teachers in school settings, provide a unique opportunity for the implementation of mental health interventions at scale in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). There is scant information to guide the large-scale implementation of school-based mental health programme in LMICs. This article describes pathways for large-scale implementation of a School Mental Health Program (SMHP) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). A collaborative learning group (CLG) comprising stakeholders involved in implementing the SMHP including policymakers, programme managers and researchers from EMR countries was established. Participants in the CLG applied the theory of change (ToC) methodology to identify sets of preconditions, assumptions and hypothesized pathways for improving the mental health outcomes of school-aged children in public schools through implementation of the SMHP. The proposed pathways were then validated through multiple regional and national ToC workshops held between January 2017 and September 2019, as the SMHP was being rolled out in three EMR countries: Egypt, Pakistan and Iran. Preconditions, strategies and programmatic/contextual adaptations that apply across these three countries were drawn from qualitative narrative summaries of programme implementation processes and facilitated discussions during biannual CLG meetings. The ToC for large-scale implementation of the SMHP in the EMR suggests that identifying national champions, formulating dedicated cross-sectoral (including the health and education sector) implementation teams, sustained policy advocacy and stakeholders engagement across multiple levels, and effective co-ordination among education and health systems especially at the local level are among the critical factors for large-scale programme implementation. The pathways described in this paper are useful for facilitating effective implementation of the SMHP at scale and provide a theory-based framework for evaluating the SMHP and similar programmes in the EMR and other LMICs.

15.3 USING TECHNOLOGY TO ADVANCE SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH: EXPERIENCE FROM THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (10) ◽  
pp. S22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed Usman Hamdani ◽  
Naila Muzaffar ◽  
Zille Huma ◽  
Affan Hamdani ◽  
Rabia Rauf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
School Mental Health ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region

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 Classifications of Winter Euro-Atlantic Circulation Patterns: An Intercomparison of Five Atmospheric Reanalyses

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (19) ◽  
pp. 7847-7861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Stryhal ◽  
Radan Huth
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Synoptic Climatology ◽  
Cmip5 Models ◽  
Circulation Patterns ◽  
Twentieth Century Reanalysis

Abstract Atmospheric reanalyses have been widely used to study large-scale atmospheric circulation and its links to local weather and to validate climate models. Only little effort has so far been made to compare reanalyses over the Euro-Atlantic domain, with the exception of a few studies analyzing North Atlantic cyclones. In particular, studies utilizing automated classifications of circulation patterns—one of the most popular methods in synoptic climatology—have paid little or no attention to the issue of reanalysis evaluation. Here, five reanalyses [ERA-40; NCEP-1; JRA-55; Twentieth Century Reanalysis, version 2 (20CRv2); and ECMWF twentieth-century reanalysis (ERA-20C)] are compared as to the frequency of occurrence of circulation types (CTs) over eight European domains in winters 1961–2000. Eight different classifications are used in parallel with the intention to eliminate possible artifacts of individual classification methods. This also helps document how substantial effect a choice of method can have if one quantifies differences between reanalyses. In general, ERA-40, NCEP-1, and JRA-55 exhibit a fairly small portion of days (under 8%) classified to different CTs if pairs of reanalyses are compared, with two exceptions: over Iceland, NCEP-1 shows disproportionately high frequencies of CTs with cyclones shifted south- and eastward; over the eastern Mediterranean region, ERA-40 and NCEP-1 disagree on classification of about 22% of days. The 20CRv2 is significantly different from other reanalyses over all domains and has a clearly suppressed frequency of zonal CTs. Finally, validation of 32 CMIP5 models over the eastern Mediterranean region reveals that using different reanalyses can considerably alter errors in the CT frequency of models and their rank.

scholarly journals The Burden of Mental Disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990–2013

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S156-S157 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Charara ◽  
A. Mokdad
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Years Of Life Lost ◽  
Life Years

The eastern Mediterranean region (EMR) is witnessing an increase in mental illness. With ongoing unrest, this is expected to rise. This is the first study to quantify the burden of mental disorders in the EMR. We used data from the global burden of disease study (GBD) 2013. DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) allow assessment of both premature mortality (years of life lost–YLLs) and nonfatal outcomes (years lived with disability–YLDs). DALYs are computed by adding YLLs and YLDs for each age-sex-country group. In 2013, mental disorders contributed to 5.6% of total disease burden in EMR (1894 DALYS/100,000 population): 2519 DALYS/100,000 (2590/100,000 males, 2426/100,000 females) in high-income countries, 1884 DALYS/100,000 (1618/100,000 males, 2157/100,000 females) in middle-income countries, 1607 DALYS/100,000 (1500/100,000 males, 1717/100,000 females) in low-income countries. Females had a greater proportion of burden due to mental disorders than did males of equivalent ages, except for those under 15 years. The highest proportion of DALYs occurred in the 25–49 age group. The burden of mental disorders in EMR increased from 1726 DALYs/100,000 in 1990 to 1912 DALYs/100,000 in 2013 (10.8% increase). Depressive disorders accounted for most DALYs, followed by anxiety disorders. Palestine had the largest burden of mental disorders. Nearly all EMR countries had a higher mental disorder burden compared to global level. Our findings call for EMR health ministries to increase provision of mental health services and to address stigma of mental illness. Our results showing the accelerating burden of mental health are alarming as the region is seeing an increased level of instability.

scholarly journals Mental health in EMRO: the future is now

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-335
Author(s):  
B. Saraceno
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Community Care ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Mental Health Disorders ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Disorders ◽  
Health Organization

Recognizing the magnitude of the problem of mental health disorders globally, the World Health Organization has made mental health the focus of the year 2001. In this paper three priority areas for action in the Eastern Mediterranean Region are suggested, namely: human rights, mental hospitals and community care, drug abuse, and reconstruction of the health care system in Afghanistan.

scholarly journals Development of a World Health Organization Programme for School Mental Health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hesham M. Hamoda ◽  
Sharon Hoover ◽  
Jeff Bostic ◽  
Atif Rahman ◽  
Khalid Saaed
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
School Mental Health ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Health Organization

Background: Schools provide an exceptional opportunity for mental health promotion and intervention. Aims: To describe the development of a World Health Organization (WHO) School Mental Health Program (SMHP) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Methods: Two tenets guided development of the SMHP: (1) it used a multitiered system of support framework including 3 tiers of interventions (universal, early and targeted); and (2) interventions must be feasible for implementation by non-mental health professionals. Results: The WHO SMHP is organized into a background section, followed by 3 modules: Social–Emotional Childhood Development; Mental Health Promoting Schools (Promotion and Prevention); and Addressing Student Mental Health Problems in Your Classroom, including specific classroom strategies and case examples. Conclusion: Developing an appropriate curriculum sensitive to the needs of individual countries requires involvement of those familiar with schooling in those countries, with mental health priorities and practices that promote mental health, and to coalesce school staff, parents and community members in the service of their children.

scholarly journals From adversity to resilience in the COVID-19 era: strengthening mental health systems in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 1148-1150
Author(s):  
Julian Eaton ◽  
Atif Rahman ◽  
Richard Gater ◽  
Shekhar Saxena ◽  
Asmus Hammerich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Mental Health Systems

scholarly journals Consumption of fruits and vegetables among adolescents: a multi-national comparison of eleven countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

2016 ◽  
Vol 116 (10) ◽  
pp. 1799-1806 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. F. Al Ani ◽  
Lyutha K. Al Subhi ◽  
S. Bose
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Student Health ◽  
Adequate Intake ◽  
School Based ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
National Comparison ◽  
Cross Country

AbstractA regional cross-country profile of fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption is lacking in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). This study examines the prevalence of and differences in consumption of F&V ≥5 times/d among adolescents in eleven EMR countries, and describes differences in the proportions of taking F&V ≥5 times/d by sex, age and BMI. The study included 26 328 school adolescents (13–15 years) with complete data on consumption of F&V, age, sex, weight and height taken from the Global School-based Student Health Survey conducted in the EMR between 2005 and 2009. Overall, only 19·4 % of adolescents reported consuming F&V ≥5 times/d. The highest prevalence was reported in Djibouti (40·4 %) and the lowest was reported in Pakistan (10·0 %). Statistically significant differences in prevalence were observed across countries (P<0·05). With the exception of Oman, Libya and Djibouti, significantly more males than females ate F&V ≥5 times/d. The proportion of students consuming F&V ≥5 times/d also varied significantly in all countries based on BMI (P<0·0001), with students within normal BMI having the highest frequency. A negative trend was observed between age and intake of F&V ≥5 times/d in most of the eleven EMR countries except Jordan, Djibouti and Morocco. The prevalence of adequate intake of F&V is low in the eleven EMR countries. There is a need for interventions to increase the prevalence of adolescents consuming F&V ≥5 times/d. Interventions should take into consideration the psychosocial, environmental and socio-environmental factors influencing F&V intake within countries.

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