Webcast 01 – Implementing Integrated Behavioral Health In Low-Resource Settings

Summary

It is estimated that one in seven individuals in the world today have a mental health or substance use disorder. Most of these individuals live in low-resource settings. Low resource mental health settings are typically characterized by a lack of funds, limited access and availability of services and/or shortage of trained personnel on an individual or societal basis to adequately address mental health needs. In response to this reality, organizations such as the National Institutes of Health and World Health Organization have called for the development of resource conservative and low dose interventions to scale up mental health access and services. Resource conservative and low dose interventions refer to interventions that are low frequency, short duration and/or low intensity. Low intensity interventions are designed to use fewer resources, in terms of healthcare professional time and expertise than conventional psychological therapies. These interventions are often delivered and/or supported by health workers without formal mental health professional training, who have been specifically trained to deliver low-intensity interventions. One model that has received increased attention over the past decade is the Community Resiliency Model (CRM). CRM is a low dose guided self-help intervention aimed at teaching lay health workers to provide individuals, groups and communities a set of skills geared toward increasing resiliency, regulating the nervous system and reducing distress. This presentation reports on a recent pilot project where community health workers were trained to provide CRM as part of an integrated behavioral health service to medical staff and patients in a hospital in Sierra Leone.