Final report on mental health in the Americas: partnering for progress
No Thumbnail Available
Cite
Pan American Health Organization. (2001). Final report on mental health in the Americas: partnering for progress [Journal articles]. https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/42648
Date
2001
Document Number
PAHO/HPP/HPM/02.01
ISBN
eISBN
ISSN
DOI
Other Language Versions
Description
Published with the support of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Conference on mental health in the Americas. Pan American Health Organization; 5-6 nov. 2001
Conference on mental health in the Americas. Pan American Health Organization; 5-6 nov. 2001
Notes
Pages
Volume
Replaces
Table of contents
Link to WHO's original document
Series
Link to WHO's original document
Category
Youtube URI
Citation
Status Mendates
License
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Item Promoting Mental Health in Indigenous Populations. Experiences from Countries. A collaboration between PAHO/WHO, Canada, Chile and Partners from the Region of the Americas 2014-2015(PAHO, 2016)[Executive Summary]. In 2007, the countries of the Region of the Americas approved the Health Agenda for the Americas 2008-2017 establishing a priority for mental health. In 2014, the Pan American Health Organization’s Plan of Action on Mental Health (2015-2020) identified cross-cutting themes including ethnicity, equity and human rights, in line with the World Health Organization’s Global Mental Health Action Plan (2013). Specialized literature indicates that the rates of mental health problems among indigenous communities are growing consistently around the world. Common issues include high suicide and substance abuse rates among indigenous youth. These, combined with numerous unfavourable social determinants result in high psychosocial vulnerability. Notwithstanding these circumstances, indigenous populations are the least likely to have access to adequate mental health services. Such realities have motivated several projects addressing issues related to indigenous wellbeing since 2009. The current collaborative project furthers work initiated by PAHO/WHO aimed at finding solutions to this complex health situation. The first goal of this project was to exchange experiences on indigenous mental health issues among participating countries from the Americas. The hope was that comparing initiatives and practices used to approach common mental health issues in different indigenous communities would yield useful new ideas. Furthermore, there was interest in exploring the potential relevance and adaptability of a standardized WHO mental health training tool – the Mental health Gap Action Programme Intervention Guide - in Nunavut. The project reported here was set up as a series of meetings and opportunities to facilitate attaining these aims, coordinated by PAHO in 2014-15. Two of these meetings, held in Chile (Santiago) and in Canada (Iqaluit), involved the active participation of representatives for indigenous healthcare. As expected, different indigenous groups are grappling with an array of common mental health issues. They have different ways of conceptualizing their problems and of organizing care, as determined by historical, geographic and cultural factors. While local, culturallyrooted solutions were not unanimously proposed, some successful intercultural interventions were reported. Representatives from the different indigenous groups expressed support for the usefulness of this project and enthusiastically requested that PAHO continue bridging indigenous mental health and global mental health. Preliminary discussions outlined possible future actions focusing on training and interventions in mental health.Item Informe final sobre salud mental en las Américas: Asociándonos para el progreso(2001)Con el apoyo de la Dirección de Abuso de Sustancias y Servicios de Salud Mental (SAMHSA) de los Estados UnidosItem Involving the public in health research in Latin America: making the case for mental health(2018)[ABSTRACT]. Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) has been increasingly encouraged in health services and research over the last two decades. Particularly strong evidence has been presented with regard to the impact that PPIE has in certain research areas, such as mental health. Involving the public in mental health research has the potential to improve the quality of research and reduce the power imbalance between researchers and participants. However, limitations can be frequent and include tokenistic involvement and lack of infrastructure and support. Nevertheless, PPIE has the potential to impact mental health research in the Latin American context, where existing policies already support public involvement in health research and where the burden of mental disorders is significant. There are many lessons to learn from the evidence of PPIE in other regions. Latin America now has the opportunity to tackle one of today’s most important issues: effective health care service delivery for all, based on evidence from comprehensive health research.Item Protecting and promoting mental health in the Americas(PAHO, 2024)Mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression, and psychoactive substance use-related disorders, such as alcohol or tobacco abuse, affect people all over the world and contribute to an important burden of disease. The Americas is no exception. The Region has high prevalence rates of anxiety and depressive disorders, and has experienced a considerable increase in recent years of people living with dementia, the third leading cause of death in the Region in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated mental health issues and brought them into the spotlight. Latin America and the Caribbean saw a deterioration in mental health at the population level with prevalences of major depressive and anxiety disorders rising by 35% and 32%, respectively, in 2020. Some groups were disproportionately affected, such as health and frontline workers, women, young people, individuals with preexisting mental health conditions, ethnic minorities, and those living in situations of vulnerability. There is a lack of access to quality services for mental health conditions in many countries. Furthermore, these services are underfinanced; public spending on mental health is only about 3% of the health budget. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has urged all Member States to promote increased investment in mental health services.Item Diálogo deliberativo con universidades iberoamericanas sobre intervenciones en salud mental estudiantil durante la pandemia de COVID-19(2022)[RESUMEN]. Objetivo. Contextualizar una síntesis de evidencia sobre intervenciones en salud mental estudiantil durante la pandemia de la enfermedad por el coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19, por su sigla en inglés) por medio de un diálogo deliberativo con universidades iberoamericanas. Métodos. Se realizó previamente una síntesis de evidencia y un diálogo sincrónico, que consistió en la discusión en subgrupos acerca del diseño y aplicación de las intervenciones en salud mental. Se realizó un análisis de datos dialógicos y se sintetizó por temas. Resultados. Cincuenta y siete miembros de 17 universidades iberoamericanas públicas y privadas participaron en el encuentro. En el diseño de las intervenciones, se percibe la salud mental como desatendida, y visibilizada con la pandemia. La detección de necesidades es la que orienta las intervenciones y rara vez se utiliza evidencia científica para diseñarlas. Se considera importante conformar un equipo interdisciplinario con capacitación continua para diseñar un programa específico, que cubra también familias y personal docente y administrativo. En la aplicación, existen problemas como la saturación de los servicios por la alta demanda y la falta de recursos básicos de los estudiantes. Es innegable la influencia del contexto macro e institucional por la disposición de recursos. El diálogo fue percibido como oportunidad para construir un consolidado nuevo de intervenciones. Conclusiones. Este diálogo permitió enriquecer la descripción de intervenciones en salud mental estudiantil durante la pandemia de COVID-19 ya descritas en la literatura, aunque llevarlas a la práctica en nuestro contexto supone hacer frente a la deuda por la desatención previa y las altas necesidades básicas insatisfechas.