Researchware

Published in the International Journal of Mental Health Systems in January 2011, "Three models of community mental health services In low-income countries" by Alex Cohen, Julian Eaton, Birgit Radtke, Christina George, Bro Victor Manuel, Mary De Silva, and Vikram Patel, reveals that community mental health programs in low-income countries face a number of challenges.

The research utilized HyperRESEARCH to analyze source data collected through interviews and observations during site visits to the programs and from documentary evidence.

The paper's introduction states: "Global Mental Health has emerged as a significant field in public health, as evidenced by series in The Lancet and PLoS Medicine, as well as by the establishment of the WHO mental health Gap Action Programme and the development of intervention guidelines for the treatment of mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized settings. However, a major obstacle to the goal of improving and expanding mental health services in low-income countries (LIC) is the comparative lack of evidence about how mental health services in LIC function in actual practice. The Case Studies Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was established with the objective of developing a methodology to address this deficiency. In this paper, we compare and contrast three models of community mental health services in low-income settings, based on information gathered according to a qualitative case study methodology that we have developed."

The full article can be found online here.