HealthNet TPO publishes case study in PloS Medicine (30-05-2012)

PLoS Medicine is a leading open-access medical journal, providing innovative and influential studies on worldwide human health. In this month’s issue, staff of HealthNet TPO presents a case study from Afghanistan: “Improving Access to Mental Health Care and Psychosocial Support within a Fragile Context”.

PLoS Medicine specifically seeks to publish papers which have relevance across a range of settings and that address both the environmental, social, and political determinants of health, and the biological. Health being more than the sum of its parts is also the starting point for HealthNet TPO.

As part of the PLoS Medicine series on “Global Mental Health Practice”, this article presents a case study on improving access to mental health care and psychosocial support within a fragile state. In this case Afghanistan. Authors are all HealthNet TPO staff: Peter Ventevogel, Willem van de Put, Hafizullah Faiz, Bibiane van Mierlo, Majeed Siddiqi and Ivan H. Komproe.

Summary points are:

• After the fall of the Taliban, the rebuilding of the Afghan health care system from scratch, provided opportunities to integrate mental health directly into basic health services through the use of funds that became available during this complex humanitarian emergency. 
• Practice-oriented mental health trainings for general health workers and ongoing clinical supervision in the basic health care system led to substantially increased demand for and access to basic mental health care services. 
• Treatment of mental disorders within the health care system needs to be accompanied by a community-based approach that focuses on psychosocial problems. 
• Addressing service delivery needs in a fragile state has to be accompanied by capacity building and policy development in order to foster structural changes within the health care system.
  

Read the full article here.