On Wednesday 19th August, Dr Rosie Mayston Senior Researcher at the Centre for Global Mental Health King’s College London was hosted by Gede Foundation’s Mental Health Dialogue Programme. She was present at the dialogue session to share her experience in Integrating Mental Health and HIV care and support in Goa, India. The audience was captivated by her presentation because as civil society organizations, a number of participants are in one way or the other involved in HIV/AIDS treatment, care and advocacy as well as mental health and other stigmatized health burdens. It was a learning experience for everyone and even the speaker when it came to asking for suggestions on possible interventions for the future in Nigeria specifically.

Those mentioned included, advocacy, empowerment of healthcare workers with mental health knowledge, integration of care, and the centrality of the role of government.Rosie’s visit as a guest of Gede is to strengthen partnership initiative between the two organisations to further investigate the links between HIV and mental health

For more interesting sessions of the Mental Health Dialogue, please watch this space