October 10, 2014
Blurb
Mozambique’s First Fellows in Psychiatric Research Training Come to New York State Psychiatric Institute
In 2010, the Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health Initiative was formed to reduce the significant burden that neuropsychiatric disorders places on health around the globe. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), along with The Global Alliance for Chronic Disease and others, is at the forefront of this effort to provide accessible and effective treatments worldwide. In a significant acknowledgement of our expertise, the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University Medical Center and four other institutions were recently awarded a $5.8 million grant from the NIH Fogarty International Center to promote international training in mental health implementation research in Mozambique. In September 2014 PIs Milton Wainberg, MD and Maria Oquendo, MD launched a new fellowship program to train Mozambican scientists in research techniques that will help bring evidence-based care to mentally ill patients in the Southern African country. “This is a tremendous opportunity to provide much needed training and assistance to our colleagues in Mozambique,” said Dr. Oquendo, adding that, “a surprising benefit of conducting this type of work is that some of the interventions that are implemented and disseminated in LMIC [low and middle income countries] may also be useful in underserved areas of New York or other parts of the US.
Together with partners from Mozambique’s Eduardo Mondlane University and the Ministry of Health’s Mental Health Department, and in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Global Health Center and the Sao Paulo Federal University, Brazil, Dr. Oquendo, Dr. Wainberg and several faculty from our Department of Psychiatry welcomed the first group of fellows to participate in an intensive four-week training in the US. An additional four-week course will take place in Mozambique. Earning a place in the fellowship is a notable achievement given that researchers in low to middle-income countries like Mozambique rarely, if ever, get the chance to apply for an NIH postgraduate training program. For Dr. Palmira Fortunato Santos, Training Director and the Coordinator of the Research Service in the Center for Applied Psychology and Psychometric Tests in the Ministry’s Mental Health Department, this international collaboration is critical. While her role in the ministry is to help implement policy, “There is no evidence-based work to guide professionals in terms of service-delivery and medications,” she said.
Co-investigator Dr. Mohsin Sidat is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicinel at the University Eduardo Mondlane: “There are challenges in the health system. The health system covers only 60 percent of the population, so we have 40 percent of the population who have no access to health facilities.” One of the biggest challenges is a lack of human resources. In a country of roughly 24 million people, “we have only nine Mozambican psychiatrists and four from Cuba,” said Dr. Lydia Gouveia, a psychiatrist and head of mental health in Mozambique’s Ministry of Health. To meet that challenge and fill the gaping treatment gap, the country grooms high school graduates to become mid-level professionals, psychiatric technicians, who receive three years of mental health training. But even that isn’t enough to get care to those who need it.
Psychiatrist Vasco Cumbe, a coordinator of mental health services in one of Mozambique’s provinces, knows first-hand how wide a treatment gap exists. He balances a work load of inpatient and outpatient visits with support and oversight of psychiatric technicians in 10 districts comprising nearly 2 million people. He would like more local partnerships with general practitioners: “We’re not succeeding in terms of engaging them… deeply in mental health [care] so this is a big issue for us.” Integrating mental health training early on may be one way to do that and Dr. Sidat wants to make that a reality: “As a medical school, we only train medical doctors, but we want to introduce a clinical psychology course. We have a mental health master’s program and we want to strengthen that program so we can increase the pool of people trained in research.”
This new research training fellowship program is one critical step towards strengthening the capacity and sustainability of mental health research in Mozambique, and towards the ultimate goal of implementing relevant evidence-based treatment to its citizens with neuropsychiatric illnesses.
In 2010, the Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health Initiative was formed to reduce the significant burden that neuropsychiatric disorders places on health around the globe. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), along with The Global Alliance for Chronic Disease and others, is at the forefront of this effort to provide accessible and effective treatments worldwide. In a significant acknowledgement of our expertise, the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University Medical Center and four other institutions were recently awarded a $5.8 million grant from the NIH Fogarty International Center to promote international training in mental health implementation research in Mozambique. In September 2014 PIs Milton Wainberg, MD and Maria Oquendo, MD launched a new fellowship program to train Mozambican scientists in research techniques that will help bring evidence-based care to mentally ill patients in the Southern African country. “This is a tremendous opportunity to provide much needed training and assistance to our colleagues in Mozambique,” said Dr. Oquendo, adding that, “a surprising benefit of conducting this type of work is that some of the interventions that are implemented and disseminated in LMIC [low and middle income countries] may also be useful in underserved areas of New York or other parts of the US.
Together with partners from Mozambique’s Eduardo Mondlane University and the Ministry of Health’s Mental Health Department, and in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Global Health Center and the Sao Paulo Federal University, Brazil, Dr. Oquendo, Dr. Wainberg and several faculty from our Department of Psychiatry welcomed the first group of fellows to participate in an intensive four-week training in the US. An additional four-week course will take place in Mozambique. Earning a place in the fellowship is a notable achievement given that researchers in low to middle-income countries like Mozambique rarely, if ever, get the chance to apply for an NIH postgraduate training program. For Dr. Palmira Fortunato Santos, Training Director and the Coordinator of the Research Service in the Center for Applied Psychology and Psychometric Tests in the Ministry’s Mental Health Department, this international collaboration is critical. While her role in the ministry is to help implement policy, “There is no evidence-based work to guide professionals in terms of service-delivery and medications,” she said.
Co-investigator Dr. Mohsin Sidat is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicinel at the University Eduardo Mondlane: “There are challenges in the health system. The health system covers only 60 percent of the population, so we have 40 percent of the population who have no access to health facilities.” One of the biggest challenges is a lack of human resources. In a country of roughly 24 million people, “we have only nine Mozambican psychiatrists and four from Cuba,” said Dr. Lydia Gouveia, a psychiatrist and head of mental health in Mozambique’s Ministry of Health. To meet that challenge and fill the gaping treatment gap, the country grooms high school graduates to become mid-level professionals, psychiatric technicians, who receive three years of mental health training. But even that isn’t enough to get care to those who need it.
Psychiatrist Vasco Cumbe, a coordinator of mental health services in one of Mozambique’s provinces, knows first-hand how wide a treatment gap exists. He balances a work load of inpatient and outpatient visits with support and oversight of psychiatric technicians in 10 districts comprising nearly 2 million people. He would like more local partnerships with general practitioners: “We’re not succeeding in terms of engaging them… deeply in mental health [care] so this is a big issue for us.” Integrating mental health training early on may be one way to do that and Dr. Sidat wants to make that a reality: “As a medical school, we only train medical doctors, but we want to introduce a clinical psychology course. We have a mental health master’s program and we want to strengthen that program so we can increase the pool of people trained in research.”
This new research training fellowship program is one critical step towards strengthening the capacity and sustainability of mental health research in Mozambique, and towards the ultimate goal of implementing relevant evidence-based treatment to its citizens with neuropsychiatric illnesses.