Government, Advocacy, Policy, and Partnerships

Sierra Leone

The Sierra Leone Psychiatric Teaching Hospital (SLPTH) has been transformed into a well-resourced hospital in which to deliver and receive dignified care for severe mental health conditions. Together with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), PIH has addressed the most basic hospital needs since 2018 by establishing electricity and running water, renovating patient wards, and procuring essential medicines. Declaring SLPTH chain-free for the first time since it opened its doors was possible through an effective partnership between PIH, SLPTH, and the MoHS. June 4, 2020, was a day of celebration at SLPTH when hospital staff, patients, and country leaders—including President Julius Maada Bio and Minister of Health Dr. Alpha Wurie—gathered to recognize and rejoice over the completion of renovations and hospital improvements. The PIH Sierra Leone team continues to collaborate with the MoHS on national policy to inform both hospital and community-based mental health care. 

Peru

The team works in partnership with the Peruvian government’s arm for mental health, MINSA, and the National Institute of Mental Health (Hideyo Noguchi) by providing complementary community-based interventions and referring people to MoH facilities for care. For example, SES piloted a safe house model for young women living with severe mental health conditions who have been abandoned by their families. The MoH then took up the model for national scale. Also, through Socios En Salud’s BienEstar program, the Mental Health team piloted an innovative chatbot where people are screened for mental health conditions through a self-administered mobile screening tool and linked to support if needed. The chatbot is being piloted with SES and scaled up nationally in partnership with the government. Also, the team adapted the chatbot into Quechua (an indigenous language family) to increase access to essential mental health services.

Rwanda

PIH has collaborated with the MoH to deliver decentralized mental health care through a health center nurse training model called MESH Mental Health (Mentoring and Enhanced Supervision at Health facilities for Mental Health).  Aligned with MoH mental health policy, MESH MH provides affordable, community-based care in the public primary health care system, increasing the use of trained non-specialists through the mentorship program in three Districts in Rwanda. The MoH has since scaled this model to an additional district, Musanze, to be the first non-PIH district to replicate MESH MH.

Lesotho

In 2020, at the invitation of the Ministry of Health, the PIH Lesotho team became the lead author and partner for the country’s first national mental health policy and strategic plan. The strategic plan will be a tool to advocate for increased dedicated mental health funding in Lesotho. The policy and strategic plan received support from PIH’s Global Policy and Partnership, Global Mental Health, and Clinical Planning and Financing teams. If approved, the policy will result in new staff, stuff, spaces, and systems for mental health care that decentralize services for nearly a fifth of Basotho living with mental, neurological, and substance use disorders. The document below provides a case study for how the Planning Matrix was adapted and used for policy development in Lesotho.

Lesotho policy Guide

Lesotho Mental Health Policy Case Study