What can be done to raise awareness?
The next step is creating antistigma messages in partnership with the Ministry of Health and other local groups. The Carter Center will work to raise awareness and educate people about epilepsy, psychosis, and depression. The campaigns will be in the form of radio dramas and street performances, which are ideal ways to get people engaged in the issue and get them to ask questions. Interactive narrative approaches are crucial to teach basic lessons about mental health care and support for individuals with mental illness
The Carter Center also is developing a mental health training module for family psychoeducation and support. This will complement the government’s ongoing work in standardizing psychosocial care in the country. This summer, the center will be piloting the module to see how it can improve quality of life for persons with mental illness and their families.
Do you have any tips about mental health care for clinicians who are working overseas?
Any clinician – regardless of specialty – who is working in underserved communities can have a dramatic impact in mental health care. There are two powerful things you can do: First, providing general health care for a person with mental illness sets an important example. In Liberia, as in most low- and high-income countries, mental health care often is a lower priority than are other kinds of medical care. In Liberia, persons with mental illness were often not given the same access to hospital care as were other patients because health care workers were uninformed about mental illnesses, thought that mental illnesses were contagious, and were afraid of psychiatric patients. As a clinical provider working overseas, you have the opportunity to demonstrate equality of care.
Second, clinicians in any specialty can take time to provide basic teaching on neuropsychiatric conditions. Any health care worker – from an ophthalmologist to a pediatric nurse – can use such opportunities to teach the basics about epilepsy, depression, or substance abuse.
Even the most basic lessons in mental health would be a tremendous benefit to local health professionals and people in areas with little exposure to information. To promote mental health around the globe, we need to communicate only three basic messages: Mental illness is treatable, it is not contagious, and it is just as important to people’s well-being as treating physical illnesses.
For more information about the Carter Center’s mental health program, visit http://www.cartercenter.org/health/mental_health/index.html.