Meffert takes part in World Bank-WHO and NIMH global mental health events

By UCSF Global Health Sciences news services | Originally published on globalhealthsciences.ucsf.edu
 

Driven by recognition that mental health issues impose an enormous disease burden on societies across the world, the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO) hosted a two-day series of events on April 13 and 14, 2016, during the World Bank International Monetary Fund Spring meetings in Washington D.C.

Out of the Shadows: Making Mental Health a Global Priority engaged finance ministers, multilateral and bilateral organizations, the business community, technology innovators, and civil society to emphasize the urgent investments needed in mental health services and the expected returns in terms of health, social and economic benefits with the goal of moving mental health from the margins to the mainstream of the global development agenda.

Depression alone affects 350 million people globally and is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Despite its enormous social burden, mental disorders continue to be driven into the shadows by stigma, prejudice and fear. The issue is becoming ever more urgent in light of the forced migration and sustained conflict we are seeing in many countries of the world.

The “Innovations Fair” was the first WHO-World Bank meeting event, designed to share feasible, affordable and cost-effective innovations from mental health experts around the globe in order to publicly showcase innovative mental service delivery projects from across the world, highlight success stories, and launch the World Bank’s Disease Control Priorities 3 Volume on Mental Health.

UCSF’s Mental Health HIV and Domestic Violence (MIND) Study at Family AIDS Care & Education Services (FACES) in Kenya was one of approximately 20 global innovations selected for presentation at the fair. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and UCSF Global Health Sciences affiliate faculty member Susan Meffert, MD, MPH,  serves as the study's principal investigator, testing HIV clinic integration of mental health care for depression and PTSD delivered by non-specialists for HIV-positive women affected by gender-based violence in Kenya's Nyanza region.

Following the WHO-World Bank event, the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) and Grand Challenges Canada convened a coordinated global mental health workshop, “Maintaining Momentum on the Road to Scale Up,” on April 15, 2016. Meffert discussed the MIND Study as part of the panel, “Optimizing Mental Health Service Delivery: The Science of Implementation,” which presented effective care delivery models and lessons learned that can be generalized to other settings.

About UCSF Psychiatry

The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute are among the nation's foremost resources in the fields of child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric mental health. Together they constitute one of the largest departments in the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, with a mission focused on research (basic, translational, clinical), teaching, patient care, and public service.

UCSF Psychiatry conducts its clinical, educational, and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including UCSF campuses at Parnassus Heights, Mission Bay, and Laurel Heights, the UCSF Medical Center at Mt. Zion, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, the San Francisco VA Health Care System, and UCSF Fresno.

About UCSF

UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises two top-ranked hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, and other partner and affiliated hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the Bay Area.