Global Mental Health

Hi Folks,

We viewed several film clips following Pamela's lecture yesterday on global mental health.

Source: http://liberia-humanitarian.blogspot.com/

The first two were #4 and #6 from a series about the work of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) on confronting mental stress and trauma in Hebron, the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  

The second was a photo essay by Robin Hammond, a New Zealand photo journalist, about his work in documenting the problem of mental illness neglect in East Africa.

Finally, we viewed a positive story about efforts by the Carter Center to train mental health nurses in war-torn Liberia, as seen in the beautifully filmed documentary "Still We Rise."

I am adding these two links which update the work of Hammond and the Carter Center, as well.  

Victims of the Liberian civil war given hope

Meantime, Pamela stressed during her presentation that depression is a major cause of morbidity world wide, in the absence of war or natural disaster, with the greatest frequency occurring in the U.S.  This TEDxMet talk by Andrew Solomon, "Depression, the secret we share",  offers a vivid description of the debilitating effects of this disease for someone who has never suffered the atrocities in Hebron, South Sudan, or Liberia.  A similar story is told in this moving article by Scott Stossel, an editor at the Atlantic Monthly, about his lifelong struggle with anxiety.

Lastly, Pamela referenced the following studies regarding the allocation of mental health resources vis-a-vis the need in low-resource settings:

• WHO Mental Health Gap Action Program http://www.who.int/mental_health/mhgap/en/ 
• Lund et al. "Poverty and mental disorders: breaking the cycle in low-income and middle-income countries," Lancet 2011,Volume 378, Issue 9801, 22–28 October 2011, Pages 1502–1514.
• Moon et al. "The Global Health System: Lessons for a Stronger Institutional Framework," PLoS Med 2010, 7(1): e1000193. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000193 

I hope you find these films thought provoking and consider how the mental health challenges faced in areas of conflict and low resources can be addressed through evidence-based research.

Take care, Jim