COVID-19 Statement by Jamie’s Fund

At the beginning of March, Jamie’s Fund was delighted to support another mhGAP* Train the Trainers course. Healthcare workers from nine hospitals were equipped with the skills to teach their clinical colleagues to identify and treat routine forms of mental ill health.

It is unfortunate that this has happened at this time when the world is closing down as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. Although this virus seems to have been rather slower to spread to Africa than elsewhere in the world, we are beginning to see an acceleration in some places. However, governments in countries such as Uganda have used the time to implement preventative action to try to protect their citizens. In Uganda, for example, there have been measures to control and discourage the movement of people at the borders, schools and universities have been closed, and large scale social, cultural, religious and political gatherings have been suspended.

These measures will inevitably have an impact on the process of cascading the mhGap training, as further workshops will need to be delayed till life returns to more normal. Despite this, the mhGap model has proved to be a strong and effective one and we expect to resume delivery of the training soon after the present measures are eased and it is considered safe to do so. In the meantime, we continue to give our support to the frontline staff in Uganda and to wish them good health.

While our thoughts are very much with the clinicians and patients in Uganda, for us as a charity the present emergency also means that our planned visits to our partners in Uganda have been postponed until the situation improves. However, we also continue to communicate with many of friends, colleagues and partners in Uganda and we can still support them in their planning as they look to grow their mental health services. Perhaps the most important thing, though, is to give them encouragement and to let them know that they are not alone. They need this message now, especially now.

We are still able to send funds and continue to support many important initiatives as well as look at new projects and you can help. We recognise that there is a great deal of uncertainty and concern about incomes and jobs in our own country but if you are able to help, please click on the DONATE button or send messages of support which we can pass on to staff in Uganda.

Linda Shuttleworth, Trustee, Jamie’s Fund.

*mhGap is a World Health Organisation programme designed to give non-mental health clinicians, particularly in low and middle income countries, a good understanding of mental illness so that they can diagnose and treat many of the more straightforward conditions.

SECOND mhGAP TRAIN THE TRAINERS COURSE A GREAT SUCCESS!

 

Jamie’s Fund has been pleased to be able to sponsor a second mhGAP ToT course at Butabika in Uganda. This was in response to the desire of the many hospitals and health centres visited in September to grow their ability to deliver mental health care.

The course was held over 5 days, 17 th to 21 st February 2020, at Butabika National Referral Hospital. This is where most of the training for mental health staff takes place. Sixteen health staff from nine PNFP (Private Not for Profit) hospitals participated. Many were part of the more recently contacted Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau (UCMB), and one from the Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB). The course was led by senior Butabika teaching staff: a psychiatrist, 2 clinical psychologists, a principal tutor at the PCO School, supported by a community psychologist.

 

 

The knowledge of the trainees was tested before and after the course, and their informal feedback was also positive and enthusiastic. Jamie’s Fund will support them to cascade the mhGAP training to staff in their own hospitals over the coming months. We know from previous experience that this will lead to improved ability to identify and treat mental ill health in their communities.

(mhGAP is a World Health Organisation (WHO ) programme to train non-specialist staff to identify and treat the more common presentations of mental ill health)

 

 

Linda Shuttleworth 15.03.2020.

Jamie’s Fund Supports New Service at Bwindi Hospital for People with Depression

Kuule Yusuf, PCO, is the mental health lead at Bwindi Community Hospital. Dr Holly Tyson is a UK GP with an interest in mental health, who is working there for 12 months. Together they began to look for an effective and sustainable psychological treatment for the many people presenting there with depression. They found that Group Interpersonal Therapy (IPT-G) had been successfully rolled out elsewhere in Uganda and that the trainers were still active locally.

They devised and costed a Group IPT pilot scheme of initial training of local staff, to be followed by roll out of three 8 week IPT groups over the coming six months. If found to be successful, Bwindi Hospital Management committed to making it part of the hospital’s ongoing mental health workplan.

Jamie’s Fund has been supporting the mental health team at Bwindi for some years as they work to deliver mental healthcare across their remote community. So Kuule and Holly asked if Jamie’s Fund would support the training. We were pleased to be able to help with sponsoring the training.

Group IPT training sessions

Moderate to severe depression is said by the World Health Organisation to be responsible for a very significant personal, economic and social burden globally. Antidepressant medication can be effective, but for many people, the underlying causes also need to be recognised and addressed. Across the world, these are often to do with relationships and loss. Additionally, in low income countries, reliable and affordable supplies of medication may be limited.

Role-play in action during training session

 

This is why the WHO mental health training for non-specialist staff, mhGAP, includes Group Interpersonal Therapy as a front line treatment for depression. In a collective social culture like Uganda, group interventions can be particularly acceptable and powerful. IPT focuses on understanding the links between the person’s mood and their interpersonal difficulties, and on finding new ways to deal with these difficulties.

Having brought the IPT trainers over to Bwindi in late February, the first steps towards a new service have already been taken. We will post updates as we get them.

The mental health team after training

Linda Shuttleworth, March 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very psychologically minded hospital

We first visited St Paul’s in Kasese in November 2018. St Paul’s is a Health Centre IV, essentially a small hospital, on the edge of town.

A former chapel building has been creatively divided up to form wards. It is surrounded by other buildings housing a range of facilities, and trees provide welcome shade.

When she arrived at St Paul’s in June 2018, Alihabwe Sudaat, the Psychiatric Clinical Officer (PCO), was soon given the opportunity to attend the mhGAP Train the Trainers course, sponsored by Jamie’s Fund, and delivered by some of the Ugandan tutors at Butabika Hospital.

In her Mental Health role, Sudaat was seeing about 10 patients a month. Because of the
cost, few of her patients were able to return to St Paul’s for follow-up after leaving the
hospital.Apart from a psychologist colleague in the HIV/AIDs service, at that stage Sudaat was a little isolated professionally, and perhaps needed support to gainmore confidence in her role.

She qualified in mental health 10 years previously, but as so often happens, she had worked in other departments. St Paul’s was her first full time MH post.

Jamie’s Fund supported Sudaat and some of the mental health staff from Bwindi and Kagando Hospitals to meet and share ideas and experiences about services and data collection. They all embraced this opportunity enthusiastically, soon spending a couple of days together at Bwindi.

Feeling encouraged, Sudaat and her colleagues rolled out a very successful mhGAP course for the non-specialist staff at St Pauls, teaching them to identify and successfully treat common presentations of mental ill health.

On our visit in September 2019 we found a newly trained and highly enthusiastic team eager to report on their progress and offer ideas for future developments.

Most of them not only had received mhGAP training but have also been through a new psychosocial support training programme designed to enable support to families affected by Ebola, currently rampaging in nearby Democratic Republic of Congo.

(Thankfully the one case of ebola that came into Uganda was very effectively dealt with at Kagando Hospital).

Reverend Dr Peter, the new medical director at St Paul’s, is warmly supportive of all developments, both current and potential, to improve services for people with psychological problems, mental illness and epilepsy.

He told us that so many of the individuals who present to the hospital with physical symptoms in fact have depression and anxiety. The hospital now has this newly trained team putting their skills to very good use in detecting and treating such patients.

The team has identified a particularly vulnerable group: local teenagers and young adults. Like many young people in Uganda, they are troubled and anxious, and many turn to drugs and alcohol. The rates of self-harm are worryingly high.

The hospital runs a service specially designed for them – 80-100 attend regularly – and children with disabilities also have a special place. They would love to have a centre for children with special needs in their newly planned Mental Health Centre.

Madam Sudaat with Dr Simon and Dr Maureen

St Paul’s can in truth be described as “a very psychologically minded hospital”.

They have plans to reach further into the community. Sudaat and her local colleagues, together with others from Kagando hospital, have continued to roll out mhGAP training to include health centre staff, opening up the possibility that mental health clinics could be held at the health centres, bringing the service much nearer to the people and solving the challenge of transport costs.

The cathedral in Kasese is proving a great focus for sensitisation programmes: take the message to where the people are! Sudaat is finding that even some of the African church pastors are beginning to see that modern medicine can be helpful for epilepsy and mental illness.

The St Paul’s team has planned an ambitious programme of further sensitisation and training for clergy, police, prison officers, teachers and local leaders.

Linda Shuttleworth and Maureen Wilkinson