Amsterdam 2015
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| Abstract #2277 - No health without mental health | ||||
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Session: 40.5: No health without mental health (Parallel) on Thursday @ 16.30-18.00 in C103 Chaired by Mark Tomlinson, Tomas Campbell Authors: Presenting Author: Mr Brighton Gwezera - REPSSI, South Africa |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: To undertake a long-term view on the future of psychosocial support and mental health in Africa. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Issues: At its inception in 2002, REPSSI was one of a few voices in Africa advocating for the need to include psychosocial support as communities responded to the HIV and AIDS pandemic, in particular its affects on children. It has focused on raising awareness, developing applicable community-based approaches and tools, and creating demand for psychosocial support (PSS) among key stakeholders. Its advocacy message caught on now, just over 10 years later, there are a number of organizations incorporating PSS into their programming, developing materials, and advocating for its inclusion in health, education, and social welfare programmes. The field has grown expansively. REPSSI has created a Thought Leaders Group to act as an advisory committee from which it can i) identify early trends in PSS taking place globally that can be adapted to contexts in Africa ii) keep abreast of new knowledge in the field iii) fosters global learning exchange that allows development of new resources and programs with a particular emphasis on South-South exchange iv) continuous learning from global leaders. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Lessons learned: The Thought Leaders Group has provided REPSSI with an opportunity to look in a more outwardly direction, encouraging exchange of ideas across continents. | ||||
| Discussion: Project: Global thought leaders were pulled from a wide range of geographic and PSS and mental health expertise. The group meets virtually twice a year and once face-to-face. To date, the group has assisted REPSSI to identify mega global trends impacting societies across Africa. These include geopolitical challenges (e.g. rise of economic capacity in other regions, climate change), socio-economic challenges (e.g. urbanisation, migration, increasing inequality), and engagement models (focus on development as business, global connectivity, rapid technological advances). The group has highlighted a number of key challenges for the fields of PSS and mental health. There is a continuing need to distinguish mental health from mental illness. Current research indicates a link between mental health and PSS but not between PSS and mental illness. This requires greater attention to developing a cadre of community workers who can address mental illness at community level. Increased consideration needs to be placed on prevention of mental ill-health, particularly among young people, and on early childhood development, where early adverse events have long term mental health implications. Importantly, the fundamental universality of the human experience was reaffirmed allowing the focus of mental health to be joined to issues of class wealth and resources for care. This places PSS and mental health squarely within the realm of development goals, where currently, they are absent, linking mental health to common global concerns of abuse, neglect, hopelessness, and poverty. Despite its recent inception, the Thought Leaders Groups have already impacted on REPSSI’s strategic thinking. Advocacy pieces are planned to highlight how PSS and mental health underlie key development initiatives. REPSSI’s current 5-year strategic planning is based on the framework developed by this group. | ||||
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