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"Mental illnesses are the largest contributors to the global burden of non-communicable diseases. However, there is extremely limited access to high quality, culturally-sensitive, and contextually-appropriate mental healthcare services. This situation persists despite the availability of interventions with proven efficacy to improve patient outcomes. A partnerships network is necessary for successful program adaptation and implementation."

"As part of the QualityRights Initiative, WHO has developed a comprehensive package of training and guidance modules. The modules can be used to build capacity among mental health practitioners, people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities, people using mental health services, families, care partners and other supporters, NGOs, DPOs and others on how to implement a human rights and recovery approach in the area of mental health in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other international human rights standards".

Originally published at Mental Health Centre, Peshawar, 1985. Reprinted, 1997, Birmingham, UK, in revised format with minor corrections and updates. Online version, [2017 at ResearchGate],  with new introductory notes.

This paper examines with extensive documentation the theoretical and practical functioning and flaws of the WHO {World Health Organisation} Community Based Rehabilitation scheme currently  [i.e. 1985]  being field tested in a number of countries, and of the Manual Training Disabled People in the Community. The development of alternative CBR schemes in Asia, Africa and Latin America since the 1960s is outlined. It is demonstrated that the antithesis posited between 'Institution Based Rehabilitation' and 'Community Based Rehabilitation' is artificial, excluding as it does the middle ground of inexpensive, appropriate rehabilitation based at community-run neighbourhood centres. The strengths and weaknesses of neighbourhood centre based rehabilitation and the WHO‑style home‑based rehabilitation are compared, together with the many social, economic and demographic factors favouring the former approach. Cost considerations are examined in some detail. An account is given of experience in mobilising community resources for neighbourhood rehabilitation centres in Pakistan. Recommendations are made for future Community Rehabilitation plans, with emphasis on the development and dissemination of rehabilitation skills and information through appropriate media.

A special issue of the online journal "Intersectionalities - A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, and Practice", Vol 5, No.3 (2016) providing 10 articles on the theme of Mad studies. Titles of papers included are: 

Doing Mad Studies: Making (Non)sense Together; 

An Introduction to Anti-Black Sanism; 

Why Mad Studies Needs Survivor Research and Survivor Research Needs Mad Studies; 

Recovery-as-Policy as a Form of Neoliberal State Making; 

“About Nothing Without Us”: A Comparative Analysis of Autonomous Organizing Among People Who Use Drugs and Psychiatrized Groups in Canada; 

Too Young to Be Mad: Disabling Encounters with 'Normal' from the Perspectives of Psychiatrized Youth; 

Relocating Mad_Trans Re_presentations Within an Intersectional Framework; 

A Desire to be ‘Normal’? A Discursive and Intersectional Analysis of ‘Penetration Disorder’; 

Racialized Communities, Producing Madness and Dangerousness; 

Psy-Times: The Psycho-Politics of Resilience in University Student Life

"In response to the Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Médecins Sans Frontières-Operational Centre Brussels (MSF-OCB) decided to concentrate its efforts in the severely affected area of Guiuan and its four surrounding municipalities. The MSF-OCB intervention included a comprehensive approach to mental health, including care for people with pre-existing and post-disaster severe mental disorders. Based on this experience of providing MH care in the first five months after Typhoon Haiyan, we report on the monthly volume of MH activities and beneficiaries; sociodemographic and care seeking characteristics of beneficiaries receiving MH counselling/care, stratified by the severity of their condition; profile and outcomes of patients with severe mental disorders; prescribing practice of psychotropic medication; and main factors facilitating the identification and management of individuals with severe mental disorders"

International Health, Vol.8, No.5, pp. 336-344

Doi: 10.1093/inthealth/ihw032

Purpose:   The International Classification of Functioning (ICF) has found widespread acceptance since it was launched in 2001. Yet, little is known about its use in Primary Care. This paper aims to contribute to the dialogue about the practical use of the ICF by exploring how this framework constitutes a supplementary source to inform disability-related decision making in integrated Primary Care.

Method: The implementation process of the ICF in a Latin American Primary Care and Community-Based Rehabilitation setting is described and the ICF diagram is applied to a life story as an example of its current use. Participant observation, in-depth study of reports of team meetings and the review of clinical files are the main data collection methods. Data analysis is enabled by the combination of single-case study with theory testing, which facilitates the generation of hypotheses in this exploratory study.

Results: A valuable time component of the ICF may support continuity in Primary Care and the universal application of the ICF framework can promote comprehensiveness by integrating individual rehabilitation and collective disability prevention. A way to mitigate the perceived dominance of biomedical disease and deficiency thinking is proposed in order to encourage the biopsychosocial focus of Primary Care. Finally, the implementation of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) in the health condition domain of the ICF highlights the importance of social responsibility towards disability.

Conclusion: This study suggests that a creative implementation of the ICF during life course to everyone who uses universally accessible healthcare may strengthen the integrative functions of Primary Care, and may be at the heart of the information system of this essential part of the healthcare system. Further research on the complementary use of ICF and ICD-10 is suggested in order to support community-based multisectoral intervention which may be coordinated by Primary Care.

Digital technologies show promise for reversing poor engagement of youth (16–24 years) with mental health services. In particular, mobile and internet based applications with communication capabilities can augment face-to-face mental health service provision. Results of in-depth qualitative data drawn from various stakeholders involved in provision of youth mental health services in one Australian rural region are described. Data were obtained using focus groups and semi-structured interviews with regional youth mental health clinicians, youth workers and support/management staff and analysed via inductive thematic analysis. Six main themes were identified: young people in a digital age, personal connection, power and vulnerability, professional identity, individual factors and organisational legitimacy. 

DOI: 10.1186/s12913-016-1790-y

"In this personal reflection, the author is a Syrian refugee who describes his experiences as a psychosocial worker in Syria and with refugees in Turkey and Greece. He highlights how women and children lack safety in the camps. The second section discusses how he became a refugee himself. Due to his experiences in Syria, he now finds himself in a difficult situation in the Netherlands, the county where he applied for asylum and has received a permit, but his ‘cry for help’ remains unheard and unrecognised by the (health) workers in the asylum centre."

"A guiding lens for CESR's national enforcement work, the OPERA framework allows an assessment that triangulates outcomes, policies and resources to provide a much fuller picture of what a state is doing to promote the realization of specific rights. Importantly, it traces economic and social deprivations and disparities back to the actions or omissions of the state, to make the case that they constitute an injustice and a violation of human rights."