12 July 2022
Dear readers,
I hope you are already enjoying or at least anticipating your vacation during the quiet months. If the first, you can postpone reading this newsletter and go back to your enjoyment; it will still be here when you come back, mentally refreshed and relaxed.
There may not be much happening in the world of global mental health in July and August, but preparations are already underway for another busy season of events, news, resources, publications and job postings that we step straight in come September. In case you are a new subscriber, take a look at the previous issues of this newsletter to find out interesting resources and thoughtful readings; for returning readers, I would like to thank you for your continued support and look forward to your ideas, contributions and pieces that you can send me at manolova.gergana@gmail.com - or just to say hi, as I always love meeting new people involved in the field.
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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 rely on your contributions as well - please share your news or announcements with me.
Wellcome searches for a living evidence synthesis supplier
The previous edition of this newsletter told you about a new study by Wellcome and the Swiss Fondation Botnar - a landscape analysis of mental health in 22 countries - and now comes another large undertaking of Wellcome, commissioning one supplier to provide living evidence synthesis, or living reviews, on depression, anxiety and psychosis interventions in various stages of implementation. All kinds of entities, as well as individuals, can register their interest by 15 July, and Wellcome will invite a small number to take forward their proposal. The initial contract is for three years, but the result will be an open-access platform for all to use. Read the full request for proposals here.
Sangath is taking applications for Leadership in Mental Health
The Leadership in Mental Health is an annual course run by Sangath India. Since 2008, Sangath has trained a diverse cohort of over 400 local and international participants to develop their leadership capacity in the context of the emerging global mental health movement. The course is designed to promote skills that are essential in developing and scaling up mental health interventions, as well as in learning about strategies that help in overcoming key barriers in resource-constrained settings, with an emphasis on low-and-middle-income countries. Find out more about the course and Sangath’s work through their website. I thank Grace Pacheco for submitting this to the newsletter!
World Mental Health Report calling for change in our worlds
By now, you will have heard that WHO released the World Mental Health Report: Transforming health for all in June. Most news pieces on the report focus on the call for action, which is truly one of the strongest call we’ve heard from public bodies. Beyond the commonsense insistence on strengthening mental healthcare and espousing deeper commitment based on value alignment, it is radical in proposing to reshape environments to support good mental health - with the implication that what we’ve got right now isn’t doing the job. The whole report contains a wealth of information for anyone interested in public mental health and is worth a read. You can access it here.
Events in Global Mental Health
The event calendar for 2022 is 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.
26 July - Mental Health and Violence at the Mental Health for All x Global Mental Health Action Network, online - focusing on intimate partner violence, this webinar will consider a problem which is very difficult to manage, or even register. The Lancet commission on Intimate Partner Violence will surely have interesting research to share. One of the first things I did in my counselling career was to participate in a court-mandated programme for domestic abusers, and while I knew there would be no easy answers, I was constantly wrong-footed by the tangled levels of hurt and lasting scars that people were living with, on both sides. Violence is a public health problem, but is not often treated as such, particularly intimate partner violence. Hopefully we can begin to work on solutions soon.
3-6 August - 22nd WPA World Congress of Psychiatry, Bangkok, Thailand, and online - the place to be this summer, if you want to know more about the current course of psychiatry, is… online, perhaps, considering that you can get access to all recorded content for 3 months afterwards and catch up after your vacation. Or take a working vacation in Thailand - either way, the programme offers a rich discussion on many hot topics in mental health, including mental health and COVID-19, mental health and racism, task-sharing, psychotherapy, quality of life, CRPD, and many more. The general outlook of presenters is to the future, especially after the earth-shattering experiences of the pandemic, and shaped by the paradigm of global mental health.
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
PhD Studentship, University of Bristol, UK - by 30 September
PhD Studentship, University of Manchester, UK - by 15 October
Climate Change Mental Health COP Project Manager, Billion Minds
Some experience (2-5 years) necessary
MHPSS Project Manager, Medair, South Sudan
Research Fellow, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK - by 29 July
Technical Lead, Strategy and Advocacy, Orygen, Australia - by 20 July
MHPSS Coordinator, IOM, Iraq - by 17 July
Postdoctoral Fellowships in Mental Health Implementation Science, CUNY, US - by 15 July
Communications and administration consultant, IASC MHPSS Co-Chair - by 15 July
Cross-site Mental Health Coordinator, Partners in Health, US
UCSF HEAL Fellowship in Global Mental Health, University of California, US
5+ years of experience necessary
Professor of Psychology, Surrey University, UK - by 17 July
Director of Research Operations, Orygen, Australia - by 23 July
Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania, US
MHPSS Specialist Consultant, UNODC, remote - by 22 July
Advisor on NCD and Mental Health, WHO/PAHO - by 19 July
Consultant, Terre des Hommes, Iraq - by 31 July
Resources in Global Mental Health
A section for various opportunities, databanks, information sources that may prove helpful.
International Medical Corps’ Guidelines for Remote MHPSS Programming in Humanitarian Settings - a toolkit for remote delivery of mental health and psychosocial support for humanitarian settings, which helps organizations plan, make decisions and roll out MHPSS programming. The newly-published guidelines take a pragmatic approach to the need for remote delivery and ensure that even organizations which haven’t had the experience can successfully analyze the status quo and launch their own MHPSS delivery. The greatest asset, in my view, is the care taken with every detail - there are tips for providers dealing with different remote modalities - and the structure provided around the step-by-step process of remote intake, registration, referrals and prescribing. The guidelines are timely for those who may wish to make backup preparations of their MHPSS programming in case of another intensification of the pandemic.
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.
The lived experience of psychosis: a bottom-up review co-written by experts by experience and academics - a must-read article not (just) because it contains the latest breakthrough research or seminal idea, but because it represents something fundamental about the human experience of mental disorder, in particular psychosis. This is a view from the inside, taken to the conceptual and theoretical level by a sizeable group of experts by experience and service users together with academics. More than simply identifying the common elements of the life experience of a person with psychosis, it also creates the basis for empathizing in a way that brings understanding. Being a clinician or a researcher too often means treating mental disorder objectively, while this article tackles the topic subjectively and with academic rigour - a unique blend that demystifies psychosis and makes it possible to be known. It is also a hard read, because the reality of psychosis is very frequently scary and disturbing - something the article presents very well - so consider for yourself if you should read it. I hope it enters reading lists for students of psychology, psychiatry and public health, since we can all use the knowledge and the insight.
Passport And Visa Privileges In Global Health - another Forbes piece by Madhukar Pai, of McGill University, in his series on inequality within the global health field, particularly the lack of parity between Global South and Global North researchers. In the general call for decolonizing global health and supporting researchers from low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), sometimes the details get lost - and it is important to hear from the persons who are at the centre of the effort what in their opinion should be done to support them. Otherwise the whole venture risks falling down in misunderstanding and misspent resources. This is the beauty of Pai’s writing - he makes visible a whole host of problems that Global South researchers encounter, and leaves no space for claiming ignorance. Therefore if you are planning or conceptualizing meetings, conferences, or trainings with international collaborators, keep the considerations from the article in mind. I would say that they apply also to events taking place in the Global South, which can sometimes be prohibitively expensive or difficult to access for other researchers from LMIC. And I would like to add a suggestion to the potential solutions - that online or hybrid event budgets create a line for data packages and devices for participants to ensure inclusiveness.
*Social media 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.
Last month I published the translations of the term “people with lived experience” in several languages. I thank Enoch Li, who contacted me to offer an alternative translation in Chinese of "persons with lived experience": Enoch says: "I am Chinese and live in Beijing, originally from HK, and am a PWLE in the mental health sector. I have had some discussions locally with Chinese on how they would translate PWLE to mean what it is to mean in the context of mental health. The translation that most people tend to gravitate towards would be 亲历者 - own / myself + experience / journey / history + person.” I’m very happy to enter this correction in the records of the Language Corner!