gmhi de-stigmatizing mental illness through engaged care and research

 

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gmhi and the World Federation for Mental Health

We have received an invitation from the World Federation for Mental Health to present our research on suicide in Tanzania at "African Footprint in Global Mental Health", their Second World Congress to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, Oct 17th to 24th. (wmhc2011.org) The conference is a perfect launching pad for GMHI. We will now be able to combine a trip to the site of our research in Kalenga with a presentation of our work to colleagues from around the globe. Networking with other professionals who may be doing similar work is a vital aspect of growing gmhi, enabling us to reach more funding sources and expanding our knowledge base of innovative ways to provide appropriate care to poor and indigenous communities. Follow this link to find out how you can help to fund this important venture.

Tanzanian Government support for gmhi

The Government of Tanzania has notified us that they support our work in Kalenga. Dr. Joseph Mbatia, Director, Department of Health and Social Welfare, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Section has reviewed and approved our research and at his suggestion we will be meeting with him to discuss funding for the next stage of our work. Dr. Mbatia's is an important voice in the development of mental health resources for Tanzania. He has co-authored seminal papers which you can read here and we are honored to have an opportunity to work with him.

Why gmhi's work is important now

Dr.  Kristen Shirey has just returned from Kenya. She writes:

I subscribe to the Movement for Global Mental Health listserve, and was just stunned to see your report on suicide in Iringa District, Tanzania.  I completed my residency last summer in psychiatry and internal medicine and stayed at Duke as junior faculty in these departments and the Duke Global Health Institute.  I am going back and forth between Durham NC and Eldoret, Kenya (currently stateside).  During the past several months, I have been working with a few family physicians in Webuye District Hospital, about 1.5 hours west of Eldoret, who are seeing truly alarming numbers of suicides, mostly organophosphate poisonings. I am collaborating with them to formally study this and hopefully identify risk factors and strategies for prevention/earlier intervention. As you are well aware, there is an absolute dearth of suicide data from sub-Saharan Africa..... the data you have just about doubles the "body of evidence" on suicide we have from East Africa.

More suicides reported to gmhi

We continue to receive reports of suicide from the area around the village of Kalenga, the site of our initial research. Our local contacts tell us that a radio station in Iringa (the District capital, population about 100,000) has reported an 'epidemic' of suicide. At this time we are unable to confirm this report or the foundation for it. The local Police Chief (the police are usually first on the scene of a suicide) is reported to have threatened that anyone who has knowledge of a potential suicide will be "punished" if they do not report it to the police.  This attempt to criminalize human suffering obviously increases the possibility of suicides by further isolating those who may be contemplating it while threatening the well-being of their friends and family members.