SHM Foundation, London, UK
SHM Foundation, London, UK.
BMJ Glob Health. 2022 May;7(5). doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-008906.
Community-based mental health initiatives are uniquely positioned to understand the mental health needs of their local population and provide relevant, culturally appropriate and sustainable responses. However, at the grassroots level, mental health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries face key challenges, such as inadequate funding, barriers to demonstrating impact and difficulty engaging with stakeholders. The Ember Mental Health programme establishes 12-month partnerships with community-based mental health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries to support them to address these challenges, grow and achieve sustainability. This paper outlines a longitudinal qualitative study conducted to evaluate the 2020-2021 Ember Mental Health programme. Data were collected from March 2020 to March 2021 through semistructured interviews conducted with 11 initiatives at various time points throughout their Ember Mental Health partnership. A framework approach was used to analyse all data in its original language. Findings indicated that initiatives particularly benefited from provision of side-by-side mentorship; opportunities for skills strengthening and strategic thinking; occasions to network with other like-minded initiatives and/or experts in global mental health; and support on team empowerment and well-being. Based on these findings, we put forward various recommendations for funders and other stakeholders working to support community-based mental health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries. Through establishing collaborative partnerships that challenge more top-down, traditional funder-grantee relationships, it is possible to support the rich ecosystem of initiatives working to address the mental health needs of communities.
社区心理健康倡议具有独特的优势，可以了解当地居民的心理健康需求，并提供相关、文化适宜和可持续的应对措施。然而，在基层，中低收入国家的心理健康倡议面临着关键挑战，如资金不足、难以展示影响力以及难以与利益攸关方接触。Ember 心理健康计划与中低收入国家的社区心理健康倡议建立为期 12 个月的合作伙伴关系，以支持他们应对这些挑战、发展并实现可持续性。本文概述了一项纵向定性研究，该研究旨在评估 2020-2021 年 Ember 心理健康计划。数据于 2020 年 3 月至 2021 年 3 月通过半结构化访谈收集，访谈对象为在 Ember 心理健康合作伙伴关系的不同时间点的 11 个倡议。使用框架方法以原始语言分析所有数据。研究结果表明，倡议特别受益于提供并列指导；加强技能和战略思维的机会；与其他志同道合的倡议和/或全球心理健康专家建立网络的机会；以及团队赋权和福祉的支持。基于这些发现，我们为在中低收入国家支持社区心理健康倡议的资助者和其他利益攸关方提出了各种建议。通过建立合作伙伴关系，挑战更多自上而下、传统的资助者-受援者关系，可以支持为满足社区心理健康需求而努力的丰富倡议生态系统。
