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Link to full June 2023 Newsletter A Note from the Director May was Mental Health Awareness month in the United States. I particularly appreciate the theme that the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is promoting this year: #MoreThanEnough. The organization explains the meaning: “We want every person out there to know that if all you did was wake up today, that’s more than enough. No matter what, you are inherently worthy of more than enough life, love and healing….

We are excited to announce that the UW Global Mental Health Program is now the UW Consortium for Global Mental Health! The University of Washington Consortium for Global Mental Health is an organized research unit whose mission is to provide a collaborative community for global research, capacity-building, learning, and implementation of culturally congruent, sustainable community models for mental health interventions with domestic and international partners. Why a Consortium? Several centers across the university community share our interest in global mental…

Dr. Bradley Wagenaar awarded R01 to study an innovative approach to the mental health care cascade in Mozambique Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability worldwide, yet treatment gaps exceed 90% in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Considerable progress is being made in access to mental healthcare through task-shifting to lower-level healthcare providers. While task-sharing may increase access to care, little existing global mental health work is focused on improving the quality of routinely delivered mental healthcare in LMICs. Dr. Bradley Wagenaar, a UW MH faculty member, is looking to address this urgent need for evidence-based strategies…

Featured topic: Blue Space, Mental Health + Urban Design By Andrea Petzel Introduction Nearly 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 km of a coast, resulting in a population density twice the global average [1]. Defined as a transitional area between land and water, human settlements have thrived along biologically rich coastal areas (blue space), and today twenty-three of the world’s largest cities are situated on a coast [2,3]. A growing body of research indicates that access, even visibility…

2021 August Newsletter Mobile Mental Health in Community-Based Organizations: A Stepped Care Approach to Women’s Mental Health Untreated depression is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among women in low and middle- income countries (LMIC). Dr. Amritha Bhat (UW GMH faculty) and Dr. Krishnamachari Srinivasan were recently awarded an R21 from NIMH for their pilot project on mobile mental health in community-based organizations. This project will test the feasibility of an interactive voice-response, mobile health application (MITHRA) for screening,…

July 2021 Newsletter Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Since the US House of Representatives passed the resolution in 2008 in honor of Bebe Moore Campbell, mental health advocates in the United States have focused attention on improving access to mental health care and increasing public awareness among BIPOC communities, in particular, about mental illness. Ms. Campbell, an award-winning novelist and journalist, co-founded the National Alliance on Mental Illness…

2021 June Newsletter New HIV and Mental Health Center We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Behavioral Research Center for HIV (BIRCH) at the University of Washington. This developmental Center, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, will provide infrastructure and support for high-impact science on HIV and mental health and a research home for like-minded scholars. The Center will emphasize interdisciplinary research on the behavioral aspects of the epidemic, especially how we can better integrate mental…