Global Health

Global & Community Mental Health Innovation

My clinical expertise and interest in high quality systems of care has informed my engagement in public and global health innovation. I’m committed to finding new ways to provide mental health care to communities without access to care, strengthen health systems, and remove obstacles to care. 

For more than fifteen years I‘ve led and supported the implementation and integration of mental health programs as founding Director of Mental Health at Partners In Health, an international health care delivery organization working in ten countries.

This work entails support of local teams strengthening public health systems to include mental health services. The main focus of this work is to replace institutional care in locked psychiatric facilities with care delivered by collaborative teams of community members, non-specialist health care providers, and specialists who work in integrated ways close to where people live. Building teams to develop sustained models of community-based mental health care delivery in places where services are difficult to reach has contributed to an emerging field of global mental health delivery. This work is also being translated to the US context to address our ongoing national mental health crisis.

Domains of Action
Delivery of Care Delivery of Care
Training and Education
Research
Advocacy for Policy Change Advocacy for Policy Change
Areas of Focus
Systems of Care Systems of Care
Humanitarian Crisis Response Humanitarian Crisis Response
Task Sharing Task Sharing
Philosophies of Care
Dimensional Approaches Dimensional Approaches
(Prevention and Promotion)
Categorical Approaches Categorical Approaches
(Psychiatry)
The Lynchpin
Health Equity, Collaboration and Partnerships Health Equity, Collaboration and Partnerships