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Emerald NepalTranscultural Psychosocial Organization Nepal (TPO Nepal)94/13, Anek Marge, BaluwatarGPO BOX 8974 CPC 612,KathmanduNepalwww.tponepal.org

Dr Mark Jordans+977 1 4431717mark.jordans@hntpo.orgMr Nawaraj Upadhaya+977-1-4431717nupadhaya@tponepal.org.np

P R E S S DO SS I E R

The work leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 305968.

Emerging mental health in low-and middle income countries

Emerald Annual Meeting 2016From September 11 to 15 the Emerald group met for its annual project meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal. The meeting was hosted by our partner TPO Nepal and chaired by the Project Coordinator, Professor Graham Thornicroft from King’s College, London.

The Emerald consortium was really interested in using this meeting for having an impact in dissemination activities with stakeholders and local media, that’s why strategies where designed for involving policy makers, giving a continuation to previous contact activities to meet the consortium and take advantage of the meeting being held in Nepal. The objective of this thrust on Emerald activities is to have an impact on health and social policies at national and local level.

In addition to the annual project meeting, the group invited policy makers from Nepal to join for a dedicated session on September 12 evening. The meeting was held with presence of Mahendra Shrestha, Head of Department at Policy; Roshan Shrestha and Lila Poudel from Planning and International Cooperation Division (PPICD); Mohamad Daud, Director; Mr. Achyut Lamichhane, Deputy Director and Daya Krishna Panta, Public health officer of Primary Health Care Revitalization Division; Dr. Bhimsing Tingkari, Director of logistics Management Division at Dept. of Health Services, Mr. Ramkrishna Adhikari, Under Secretary of Curative Service Division; Ms. Srijana Gyawali, Junior officer; Mr. Hari Krisna Phuyal, Section Officer and Mr. Uttam Kumar Shrestha from Ministry of Health; Ram Kumar Khanal, DIG of Women and Children Service Directorate at Police Head Quarter, Ministry of Home; Professor Dr. Shishir Subba, PhD and Prof. Usa Kiran Subba, PhD from Psychology Departement, Tribhuwan University and Mr. Ashok Pandey, researcher from Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC).

During this meeting, Emerald Coordinator, Professor Graham Thornicroft, dis a presentation of the Project, while the representative from Ministry of Health explained the situation of Mental Health in Nepal. After the speech, a very participative discussion was held between Emerald researchers and stakeholders, in which the emphasis was put in the opportunity for Nepal to talk about Mental Health. After the meeting, the debate followed in an informal environment, as part of a working diner.

The media in Nepal were also involved as journalists from various newspapers and channels were invited to join the researchers for an evening programme on Tuesday, September 13. A press

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P R E S S DO SS I E R

The work leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 305968.

conference was held and during the following dinner the journalists could interview some of the Emerald researchers. Journalists who attended the meeting and dinner were Neha Sharma, Metro F.M. Editor; Tanka Panta, NSP Editor; Shaligram Nepal, BasuPokharel, Editor and SarojDhungel, Reporter from Gorkhapatra; PurushottamGhimire, Janaswasthyasarokar health magazine Editor; Rama Sapkota, HimalKhabarPatrika correspondent; Bishnu, Share Bazaar’s Sub-editor; Omnath Adhikari from SHOP and Paras B Shah, Kantipur TV sub-editor.

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Emerald in the media in NepalA2zsamacharhttp://www.a2zsamachar.com/13967

Narayani onlinehttp://narayanionline.com/?p=20436

Emerald is funded by the European Union within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 305968

Emerald is funded by the European Union within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 305968

Kalampatihttp://www.kalampati.com/s.php?exsn=159&exmenusn=2

Emerald is funded by the European Union within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 305968

Gorkhapatra National daily http://gorkhapatraonline.com/epaper/showimage?img=uploads/epaper/2016-09-16/23534b978ccb377302790317a9d54d33.jpg

Emerald is funded by the European Union within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 305968

Himal Khabar

http://hamro-magazine.appspot.com/webapp/0695f9ed-e0cb-4da0-8dcb-142bccf0d066/24aa4004-afe3-442f-8b54-a452f0c925e1

Emerald is funded by the European Union within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 305968

Emerald is funded by the European Union within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 305968

About Transcultural Psychological Organization Nepal

Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) Nepal is a non-governmental organization established in 2005 with the aim of promoting psychosocial and metal health wellbeing of people through development of sustainable, culturally appropriate and community based psychosocial and mental health support systems. In the beginning TPO Nepal worked in transitional situations such as conflict, refugee settings and disaster response and was active at the district and community level service provision. This experience really helped to broaden its knowledge base and expand the program areas to long term structural needs for mental health. TPO Nepal then expanded its program to address the mental health needs of people living with HIV/AIDS, children affected by acute malnutrition, suicidal ideation among reproductive age women, women affected by domestic and sexual violence and people affected by alcohol and substance abuse. TPO Nepal’s core foci are community-based psychosocial and mental health service delivery, capacity building and scientific research.

All programs were initially implemented following an ‘NGO model’ with some district and regional level government coordination. Since last few years TPO Nepal has moved away from a solely NGO model and has adopted a joint ‘Government- NGO model’. TPO Nepal’s contribution in the development of national guidelines for trafficked women in collaboration with ministry of women, children and social welfare, it’s technical support to the National Center of HIV/AIDs Control in the development of psychosocial guidelines for children affected by HIV/AIDs and its role in providing psychosocial training to police staff in close collaboration with women and children service centers under Nepal police are some of the examples of Government- NGO model that TPO Nepal has successfully implemented. Nationally TPO Nepal has contributed by co-chairing the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial in Emergencies, by playing an active role in the establishment of National Mental Health Network and serving as secretariat for the first two years, by being psychosocial lead for Children Affected by Armed Groups and Forces (CAAFAG) working group and by participating as an active member of UN cluster systems (protection and health clusters).

TPO Nepal has signed an MoU with Ministry of Health and Populaltion (MoHP) to explore the feasibility of integrating mental health into PHC in Chitwan district through an international consortium project called PRIME (Program for Improving Mental Health Care) funded by DFID UK. Under this project the WHO’s mhGAP modality is being pilot tested and a district mental health care package is being developed.

Emerald is funded by the European Union within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 305968

Emerging mental health in low-and middle income countries

The need for mental health services is high worldwide – more than 13% of the global burden of disease is due to neuropsychiatric disorders, and almost three quarters of this burden lies in low- and middle-income countries. The Emerald programme hopes to help towards reducing some of this mental health treatment gap by improving the knowledge base on how to enhance health system performance in practice in low- and middle-income countries (LAMICS).

Emerald stands for “Emerging mental health systems in low- and middle-income countries”. The 5-year project started in November 2012 and is funded for a five-year period until October 2017 by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme.

Emerald brings together specialized psychiatrists from Europe, Africa and Asia and is centrally coordinated by Prof. Graham Thornicroft of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London. With our research we would like to address different target groups: policy makers and planners, service users and researchers.

ObjectivesEmerald aims to improve mental health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs) by enhancing health system performance. It aims to do so by identifying key barriers within health systems to the effective delivery of mental health services in low- and middle-income countries, and offering solutions for the delivery of mental health services in these countries. The project hopes to thereby improve mental health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries in a fair and efficient way.

The work that we are conducting within Emerald is currently being carried out in six LAMICs in Africa and Asia only. The six countries were chosen, as they all face mental health system challenges that are common across LAMICs (for instance in terms of weak governance, low resource bases or poor information systems), but were also chosen into the programme opportunistically, in terms of there being sufficient capacity and good-will amongst researchers and policy-makers, and the timeliness of the programme within countries.

The three main objectives are adequate, fair and sustainable resourcing, integrated physical and mental health service provision and improved coverage of care and goal attainment.

PartnersThe Emerald consortium consists of twelve participating institutions based in five different EU member states as well as six partners in Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda.

1. King’s College London, KCL, Prof Graham Thornicroft2. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, UAM, Prof José Luis Ayuso-Mateos3. World Health Organization, WHO, Dr Daniel Chisholm4. Addis Ababa University, AAU, Prof Atalay Alem

Emerald is funded by the European Union within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 305968

5. Public Health Foundation of India, PHFI, Dr Rahul Shidhaye6. Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Nepal, TPO Nepal, Dr Mark Jordans7. University of Ibadan, UI, Prof Oye Gureje8. University of Cape Town, UCT, Prof Crick Lund9. University of KwaZulu-Natal, UKZN, Prof Inge Petersen10. Butabika National Mental Hospital, BNH, Dr Fred Kigozi11. ARTTIC, Dr Stefanie Fülöp12. HealthNet TPO, HNTPO, Dr Mark Jordans

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Emerald is funded by the European Union within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 305968