Projects
| Mental Health and Poverty Research Programme Consortium | |
|---|---|
| Co-ordinator | Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, South Africa |
| Partners |
|
| Nuffield staff | Maye Omar (contact), Andrew Green , Philippa Bird, Tolib Mirzoev |
| Duration | 2005 - 2010 |
| Location | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Funder | DFID |
MHaPP Project website
Details
The purpose of this knowledge programme is to develop, implement and evaluate mental health policy in poor countries, in order to provide new knowledge regarding comprehensive multi-sectoral approaches to breaking the negative cycle of poverty and mental ill health.
The programme will undertake an analysis of existing mental health policies in poor countries, provide interventions to assist in the development and implementation of mental health policies in those countries, and evaluate the policy implementation over a 5 year period. The programme will be conducted in four countries that represent a variety of scenarios in mental health policy development and implementation: Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.
Strategies for making mental health care accessible to poor communities will be documented, for instance, through primary health care and non-health sectors, with an emphasis on promoting mental health and providing care for those who most need it and can least afford it. Capacity will be built in mental health research, policy making, service planning and service delivery. MHPP will provide a coherent body of high quality policy relevant new knowledge to assist other developing countries to break the cycle of poverty and mental ill health.
MHaPP Partners, Capetown 2008
Update December 2009
The Mental Health and Poverty Project is
now entering the final year. This five-year research project, funded by
the UK Department for International Development, aims to develop, implement
and evaluate mental health policy in four African countries (Ghana, South
Africa, Uganda and Zambia). We are working to provide new knowledge regarding
comprehensive multi-sectoral approaches to breaking the negative cycle
of poverty and mental ill-health. In the Nuffield Centre, Mayeh Omar, Andrew
Green, Tolib Mirzoev, Philippa Bird and Victoria Remington-Smith work on
the project.
This is an exciting stage of the project. We have completed the first phase of the research - a situation analysis of the mental health policies and systems in the four study countries and are continuing to disseminate the results. Our findings show that mental health remains a low priority in all four countries, despite the high prevalence of mental ill health. Services, resources and staffing for mental health are inadequate and often centred on large institutions in or near the capital cities. Furthermore, many countries have outdated laws and mental health policy development has been slow and implementation has been variable. We are developing recommendations to improve the mental health policy process to address these issues.
In the second phase of the research, the Leeds team are supporting the implementation and evaluation of an intervention to develop mental health information systems in Ghana and South Africa. We hope to improve the information on mental health available to decision makers, including policy makers and health managers. The Leeds team are also providing support to ensure that partners have capacity to carry out the research.
Further information on the project can be found at http://workhorse.pry.uct.ac.za:8080/MHAPP.
Publications Mental health policy development and implementation in South Africa: a situation analysis. Lund C, Kleintjes S, Campbell-Hall V, Mjadu S, Petersen I, Bhana A, Kakuma R, Mlanjeni B, Bird P, Drew N, Faydi E, Funk M, Green A, Omar M, Flisher AJ . Mental Health & Poverty Project (2008) (abstract & full text link). Uganda Report Ghana Report Mental health policy development and implementation in four African countries Flisher A, Lund C, Funk M, Banda M, Doku V, Drew N, Kigozi F, Knapp M, Omar M, Green A Journal of Health Psychology (2007); 12(3): 505-516 abstract & full text link
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