16 February 2022
Dear readers,
Welcome to February in full swing and another edition of the newsletter dedicated to the latest news, resources, publications, job ads and events in global mental health. Thank you to all subscribers, new and returning - together you number over 500 already, which I couldn’t even have imagined when I started this newsletter. I hope you continue to enjoy it and find it useful. Any feedback, requests and suggestions for comment can reach me at manolova.gergana@gmail.com.
This newsletter is FREE. If you like it, please forward it to others who might enjoy it. If you are not subscribed and would like to, simply hit the button below.
Yours,
Gergana
News and Notes in Global Mental Health
Here I share interesting pieces of information, announcements and news that have reached me in our field. I will rely on your contributions as well - please share your news or announcements with me.
Movement for Global Mental Health looking for new Secretariat
The Movement for Global Mental Health - a venerable institution of 15 years - is looking for applicants, individuals or organizations, who work in the mental health sector and would like host the rotating secretariat for the Movement from 2023 to 2026. Preference will be accorded to persons with lived experience. Interested individuals may apply by submitting the necessary documents to the Principal Coordinator (admin@globalmentalhealth.org) - find the list of documents here.
New Yorkers’ mental health gets a boost
A large-scale action in New York State will see the establishment of 12 Crisis Stabilization Centers operating 24/7 throughout the state to give care and treatment to people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. The investment of $100 million will run over five years and the centers will provide peer and recovery-oriented support. This significant step in a country, and city, which have become notorious for responding to mental health crises by sending in a police team, was likely influenced by political and advocate pressure.
Scholarship to attend the SSPC conference
The Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture is holding its 43rd annual meeting on 21-23 April 2022 online and is inviting those interested to apply for scholarships to attend. Aside from the registration fee, the scholarship covers also an annual membership fee for SSPC and various expenses for attending the meeting, including childcare for the period. The deadline for applications is 28 February.
Wellcome to launch up to £50m funding call
Researchers better prepare: towards the end of March Wellcome will be launching a call for projects that consider psychosis and early intervention more generally, building on the understanding generated by the “active ingredients” projects undertaken in previous years. Awards of up to £5 million for up to 8 years and smaller projects will be available, in all branches of knowledge concerned with mental health. Multidisciplinary and LMIC teams are especially encouraged. More information will be provided at the launch, but for now, read this.
Lancet–World Psychiatric Association Commission on Depression launched
Lancet commissions have been a mainstay in global mental health since the first one in 2007 (you can find the links to this and the 2011 papers on my website). This one takes into account all the best developments from the past 10-12 years of the field, including collaborative work with people with lived experience, rigorous research, and the public platform which global mental health put together one nail at a time, and presents the case for action, as well as the actions suggested. Keep an eye on the commission page for plenty of material to come, since the line-up of researchers is stellar. I have high hopes that the recommendations of the commission will reverberate for years to come.
Events in Global Mental Health
The event calendar for 2022 is now LIVE at globallyminded.org. Keep in mind that online events - and they are nearly all online - usually are announced shortly before they take place and I publish them on the website with only 2-3 days’ notice. I only publish some spotlights here.
24 February - Mental health recovery tools and practices in South Asia by the University of Edinburgh GMH Network. Speakers from India and Nepal will present their organizations’ understanding of recovery and the tools they have developed to assist it. The recovery approach is gaining steam in global mental health, along with the understanding that this is what people with serious mental illness value more. Along the way, interesting questions for ethnography and clinical practice are raised: who defines recovery how, and what can we do about it? I’m looking forward to these presentations.
Jobs in Global Mental Health
The jobs listed here might not be advertised as being in global mental health and the decision for including them is mine alone. Unless otherwise stated, I have found out about them through job sites, social media posts, other newsletters and so on, so I have no more information on them than publicly available and you should refer to those listed in the job ad.
No or minimum experience necessary
Traineeship in Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, ICRC, Switzerland - by 21 February
PhD, University of East Anglia, UK (UK students only) - by 28 February
PhD, Kingston University, UK (UK students only)
Some experience (2-5 years) necessary
Research Manager, Mental Health Translation, Wellcome, UK - by 17 February
Project Leads, Mental Health Implementation Network, UK - by 3 March
Project Officer, Alzheimer Europe, Luxembourg - by 13 March
Mental Health Writer, Mental Health America, Washington D.C. or remote
Post-doctoral Fellowship, Johns Hopkins Bloomsberg School of Public
Health, US (US citizens only)
5+ years of experience necessary
MHPSS Technical Advisor, The MHPSS Collaborative, Denmark or remote - by 20 February
MHPSS Study Report Technical Writer, IOM, Senegal - by 28 February
Programme Deputy Lead, Mental Health Implementation Network, UK - by 3 March
Senior Officer, United for Global Mental Health, remote - by 11 March
Director of Mental Health Equity, Mental Health America, Washington D.C. or remote
Resources in Global Mental Health
A section for various opportunities, databanks, information sources that may prove helpful.
Microestimates of wealth for all low- and middle-income countries - this is “a complete and publicly available set of microestimates of the distribution of relative poverty and wealth across all 135 low- and middle-income countries”. Global mental health is increasingly cross-polinated by disciplines such as development economics and this is obvious in the proliferation of studies of the effects that poverty alleviation has on mental health. The estimates, provided free access at the Poverty Maps, give a granulated view of absolute and relative wealth at any location within the 135 countries, and can inform both design of such studies and the analysis of the results. If you would like to delve deeper into the literature on cash transfers and mental health, you can start with this systematic review and meta-analysis on child and adolescent mental health, continue with studies available on adult mental health, and finish strong by reading the book Poor Economics which incidentally presents very strong arguments on how poverty is intricately linked with mental health.
Publications in Global Mental Health
The selection of publications ultimately reflects my personal knowledge and preferences, but I have no intended bias. Feel free to send me publications you consider interesting or that you would like to be featured. I try to focus on articles that are free or open access.
Guidelines for Recovery-Oriented Practice by the Mental Health Commission of Canada - as mentioned above, mental health systems and services around the world are slowly but surely moving towards a recovery-oriented approach. Dated from 2016, these Canadian Guidelines are a thorough review of the underpinnings of recovery-oriented practice, and a reminder that this is about deep institutional culture and values of work rather than a formal checklist. The Introduction to the Guidelines, published in 2021, gives a neat summary of the dimensions of recovery-oriented practice and can serve as a helpful handout for trainings, multidisciplinary team meetings, and service evaluation.
Dramatic growth in mental-health apps has created a risky industry - this Economist article names two of the biggest concerns with the mental health phone app industry already in the subheading: privacy and effectiveness. Others are also briefly touched on, such as the claims of apps to scientific evidence base when actual evidence is far from robust and may be biased. The proliferation of apps and the ready-made solutions they offer make them a tempting extra for employers who provide subscriptions as part of benefits package and may thus feel absolved of their responsibility to a mentally healthy workplace. And is AI good enough now to be given the therapist’s role, from the point of view of the clients?
Double Agents In Global Health - a detailed dive into the complexities of being a person from the researched populations or countries among the ranks of researchers, this is a necessary read if you are a “double agent” - to make sense of your experiences - and especially if you are not - to understand what burdens and expectations you may be unconsciously placing on the shoulders of your colleagues. No one individual’s experience matches up perfectly with another’s, but I can recognize many of the nuances described in this piece either from my own work, or from observing that of others. It’s a step towards achieving fairness and equity in global (mental health), and it reminded me of this article which speaks to the same experiences from a different angle. The language of localization can be used to diminish expertise and anchor it in a concrete place and time, shackling it from giving its generous contribution to other places and other peoples. This can be seen quite often in global mental health, especially in its neglect of the so-called South-South collaboration. Hopefully further self-reflection will pave the road for a new way of looking at the world map, one which does not divide it into spheres of influence with sweepingly general labels.
*Cover image courtesy of Pexels.
The Language Corner
This Language Corner relies on interactions with you, the readers, to build an entertaining little multi-way dictionary of global mental health terms. Needless to say, terms don’t always translate equally well and might evoke different emotions in the different languages.
This month - to honour the Global Disability Summit, taking place this week, let’s look at the various names of a basic and fundamental document in different languages.
Arabic - اتفاقية حقوق الأشخاص ذوي الإعاقة [itfa:K’iyat huK’u:m al-ashkh’aS DHau’iy al-i3’a:ka]
Chinese - 残疾人权利公约 [cánjí rén quánlì gōngyuē]
English - Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
French - Convention relative aux droits des personnes handicapées
Russian - Конвенция о правах инвалидов [Konventsiya o prav’ah inval’idov]
Spanish - Convención Internacional sobre los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad