Preliminary meeting with NEPWHAN on survey report

Data from the ongoing survey on  base lining Mental Health knowledge among 100 Adherence Counselors in the FCT has reached the preliminary stage of analysis. This information was shared on the 5 August 2014 to Gede’s project partners from  NEPWHAN  by Cynthia Ticao-PhD from Gede Foundation, who is principally the research lead.

She explained the various stages and progress so far achieved in the survey to the team and gave initial findings from the exercise including younger respondents carrying  more stigma than older ones, two- third  of the respondents have been approached for mental health services by people living with HIV-AIDS and  members tend to seek mental health support from support groups

The report, when finalized will show the gaps in their knowledge about mental health which, when filled, will support more comprehensive treatment and care regimes

Gede and Nigeria’s Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM)

The links between HIV-AIDS and Mental Health continued to gain wider exposure as Gede Foundation visited Nigeria’s CCM on the 6th August 2014 to share the impact of anxiety, depression and substance (mainly alcohol) abuse on treatment and care for HIV-AIDS. The Foundation explained to CCM its current survey on baselining Mental Health knowledge among HIV Adherence Counsellors in the FCT with a view to supporting HIV treatment programs (ART) in various locations where Adherence Counselors are serving clients.

A team from CCM led by the Executive Secretary acknowledged this links and within its capacity agreed to the fact that a comprehensive HIV treatment therapy requires complimentary Mental Health intervention efforts among people on ART. This will not only enhance adherence to therapy but could also reduce the cost of treatment.

This initiative generated much needed interest as Gede Foundation is being invited by CCM to be more involved with its activities through regular meetings, and pushing through the identified gap at the National level

Binatu Success Story

Binatu, a 20 year old lady, who has just finished her Senior Secondary School Examination,stays in Mpape (a suburb of Abuja, Nigeria) with her brothers. Her education seems to have come to a halt as her indigent parents, according to her, have no means of sending her to school for further education. As if this was not enough, the family’s poor socio-economic status makes it difficult to afford a decent meal. She came in contact when she was selected using the Gede Foundation guidelines for Skill Acquisition Programme for OVCs and enrolled.Gede Foundation and was selected for training in the skill acquisition empowerment program. She is presently undergoing training in one of the skill acquisition centres to become a computer operator. She is grateful that on the long run she would be useful both to herself and her family. For more information about the OVC programme, contact Mr Godwin Etim – godwin@gedefoundation.org

Mental Health and HIV-AIDS

During the course of my meetings with leading mental health agencies and institutions in the UK in the past couple of weeks, I have been struck at how encouraging and supportive they have been for Gede to become even further engaged in helping the stigmatized of the stigmatized – that is, people living positively who are also suffering from a range of mental health conditions. There is an increasing focus on the symbiotic relationship between mental health and HIV-AIDS, but very little research into, for example, the prevalence (within people living positively) of a range of conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, substance (including alcohol) abuse, as well as the screening for the early stages of dementia. I cannot imagine a more difficult situation for any individual and/or family to face than one which sees the suffering which comes from living positively coupled with the onset of dementia. What happens to HIV treatment and care regimes when people suffer from mental health conditions? What happens to mental health conditions when people are told they are living positively? These are the people Gede seeks to serve and support – and, through our work, make sure that their voices are heard in the places where resources in particular are decided upon –jminto@gedefoundation.org

Meeting at the Royal College of Psychiatry on July 15 2014

During the course of my meeting with Dr Peter Hughes, Consultant Psychiatrist at the Royal College of Psychiatrists (www.rcpsych.ac.uk), I was again struck by the increasing focus of many professional organizations to ensure that mental health appears on the ‘map’ of mainstream development agencies. At the moment, although mental illness accounts for a significant % (depending which source is consulted) of the global health burden, it has yet to gain recognition at, for example, the MDG level. This is strikingly strange to many given that almost all other MDGs are reliant on strong mental wellbeing. The Royal College is one of the world’s leading organizations focusing attention on task shifting to ensure that mental health treatment and care services are available at community base primary health care centres (not just through expertise sourced in mainly urban hospital settings) thus playing a key role in the mhGAP initiative in this regard. This involves a significant amount of task shifting and training and clearly opens up opportunities for a number of agencies to collaborate with Gede in areas such as base lining a range of mental health conditions coupled with partnerships to ensure that ‘results’ are addressed with appropriate treatment and care regimes– jminto@gedefoundation.org

Meeting at the Centre for Global Mental Health, London on July 16 2014

At King’s College London (which houses the Centre), I had the privilege of meeting one of the leading figures in the world of global mental health – Professor Graham Thornicroft, Professor of Community Psychiatry, lead researcher with a number of innovative mental health projects (such as EMERALD and COBALT) around the world, and author of cutting edge research articles and, most recently, of the critically acclaimed book, ‘Shunned’. The meeting gave me the opportunity to discuss Gede’s mental health work with Professor Thornicroft who stated clearly that there is an absolute dearth of quality research into comorbid conditions and that (for example) supporting HIV-AIDS Adherence Counsellors to identify, treat (where possible) and refer a range of mental health conditions would not only enhance ART treatment rates, but would also support the treatment of mental health conditions. Professor Thornicroft also voiced his support for the greater coordination of mental health agencies, with the proviso related to the importance of engaging all agencies which are affected by mental health issues, such as prisons, schools and universities. The meeting with Professor Thornicroft ended with his observation that he remained optimistic that mental health would be given an enhanced profile within MDGs following their review in 2015 – a development which everyone involved in all aspects of health must surely fully support –  jminto@gedefoundation.org

Meeting between Gede and Basic Needs – July 14 2014

Is it morally right to raise awareness of health conditions for which no (or very few) treatment and care services are available? As Gede continues to raise awareness about key mental health issues (initially within the context of people living positively), the issue of service provision is becoming pivotal. Today, I enjoyed a fascinating meeting with Jess McQuail, Director of Social Business with Basic Needs (www.basicneeds.org) which offers an innovative model of community based mental health treatment and care provision through social franchising (which has impacted on the lives of over 600 000 people around the world since being launched three years ago). During our meeting, we agreed that there are clearly areas of mutual interest for us to explore for the benefit of our target audiences - and to keep in touch with this developing story, follow our blogs! jminto@gedefoundation.org

HIV/AIDS & Mental Health – Perspectives of a Medical Doctor - Part 2

I am reminded of a young couple whom I met in my course of my duties as a medical doctor at the Gede Foundation. They had recently gotten married then about two years when they were both diagnosed as being HIV positive. The husband was in denial, rejected the diagnosis and took to drinking huge amounts of alcohol as a way of expressing his frustrations. His abuse of alcohol was so profound that as early as 8am when he comes for his doctor’s appointment one can perceive the stench of alcohol. He subsequently became aggressive at home which manifested in wife battery, as well as refusal to start antiretroviral medication despite laboratory results that showed they would be key to prolonging his life. These series of events gave both himself and his wife a poor outcome to management of the HIV infection, thus his HIV/AIDS condition (which is treatable) has been complicated by the man’s poor mental health and given him and his wife a poor prognosis. The poor mental health of the man changed what can be said to be a simple situation to a complicated one both for them as the clients and for me as the care provider. Please join me in my next blog for the outcome of this story. Dr. Michael Ameh can be reached on mameh@gedefoundation.org

HIV/AIDS & Mental Health – Perspectives of a Medical Doctor - Part 1 - Intro

I have had this experience working as a doctor with the Gede Foundation and treating people living with HIV/AIDS. Overtime I have developed a close professional relationship with a number of them and have been privileged to know of the emotional pain they and their families/ caregivers go through. The HIV positive diagnosis brings with it a pang of conflicting emotions that range from denial, disbelief, surprise, sadness, reflection and even outright depression with suicidal tendencies in some extreme cases. A deeper understanding of the emotional trauma being experienced by individuals diagnosed with HIV and their caregivers would be discussed in more details in my subsequent blog. Dr. Michael Ameh can be reached on mameh@gedefoundation.org

Gede Foundation and Elemental Wellbeing (The Gambia)

On Tuesday July 8 2014, John Minto (Managing Director of Gede) and Marion Aslan (Founder of Elemental Wellbeing – www.elementalwellbeing.org) met in Doncaster, UK, to discuss the innovative way in which Elemental Wellbeing has addressed mental health awareness and training in The Gambia. As regular readers of Gede’s blogs will know, the Foundation is currently working on raising awareness of mental health issues across a wide range of organisations and, within this process, we are reaching out to others who have had significant success in other settings. John’s UK visit will also see him meet with a range of major mental health agencies and blogs will update readers on his meetings in due course. For more information contact John Minto jminto@gedefoundation.org