IMHSUS works with institutions, voluntary organisations and NGO’s in low and middle income countries, which work with a remit to enhance the capacity, access, and quality of services to tackle mental illness and substance use disorders, especially those which have an intimate knowledge and experience of the local situation where the work will take place. In previous grant-funding applications we have partnered with NGO’s with a relevant remit and a presence in the area where the project was to be based, eg. in an application to the Canadian Grand Challenges Programme to develop a public mental health education programme for adolescents in Dodoma, Tanzania, we partnered with CoHASO (Community Health Auspices & Shield Organisation) and SALIPO (Saving Lives Planet Organisation), both Dodoma based NGO’s working with youth and developing community awareness.
IMHSUS will support people experiencing mental health and substance use problems in the community, together with their families and social networks, paying particular attention to supporting women and children.
IMHSUS will work with community elders and traditional healers and faith groups to raise their awareness of mental health conditions and effective treatment.
IMHSUS will collaborate with appropriate academic institutions to contribute to qualitative and quantitative data collection to enhance the evidence database for effective mental health and substance use treatment and rehabilitation interventions. Much of the work of IMHSUS will include a research or data-gathering element so that we are able to provide this information about the effectiveness of the interventions, so that they can be incorporated into mainstream government funding.
Mirembe National Mental Health Hospital, Tanzania
IMHSUS signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mirembe National Mental Health Hospital (MNMHH) in June 2023. Both parties agree to further develop the existing health partnership (known as “the Tanzania Link”) between MNMHH and Central & North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) in the United Kingdom, which was established in 2009, with the aim of fostering cooperation and the exchange of knowledge and skills in the area of providing and developing mental health and substance use services. The role of IMHSUS in this relationship will be to secure funding for ongoing work which is otherwise unavailable to CNWL as a UK government-funded organization, and to collaborate actively in agreed project areas.
IMHSUS Foundation and the Mirembe National Mental Health Hospital share the belief that exchange of skills and experience are an important resource in:
- Supporting improvements in health services and systems in developing countries
- Bringing personal and professional benefits to health workers in the UK, The Netherlands and Tanzania
- Enhancing collaborative work between colleagues from different countries
We acknowledge, therefore, a mutual interest in working to support health systems and in building the capacity of health workers in Tanzania.
We share a commitment to the following key principles. We will:
- Respond to priorities identified by Tanzanian Ministry of Health, and Mirembe National Mental Health Hospital.
- Ensure that our partnership focuses on areas where there is a demonstrable health care need, or need for health system strengthening
- Ensure that the activities of the partnership are in alignment with national and local healthcare priorities and plans in Tanzania.
- Help to develop a community-oriented mental health and substance use service
Ministry of Health National Mental Health Programme, The Gambia
IMHSUS has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Health in The Gambia to help develop and sustain mental health services across the country. The Gambia has extremely limited mental health resources; with only on in-patient facility with 150 bed for a population of 2.8 million (Tanka Tanka Psychiatric Department of Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital), only 4 professionally qualified staff, supported occasionally by Cuban psychiatrists on secondment who do not speak or understand the local languages.
The psychiatric department is supported by three mental health nurses also working in generic health centres. There are no community based services anywhere in the country, and the high levels of stigma and lack of education about mental health among the general public severely impact on the access of people to proper mental healthcare.
Our MoU will enable us to work directly with the Ministry of Health to make a positive impact on mental healthcare across The Gambia, within the established mental healthcare facility, in ordinary health and social care centres and also contribute to the public education agenda.
We are currently collaborating on a major grant funding application, through the European Commission, to establish a country-wide network of skills development and employment projects for people with mental health problems, which will also act as mental health information and advice hubs and providers of public education programmes, where service users will be able to talk about their own mental health recovery journeys.
IMHSUS 