A new suicide risk assessment tool in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Suicide is a major public health concern. In Canada, suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in all ages, with a rate of 10.3 deaths per 100,000 people. In Nova Scotia, Canada, 137 suicides were reported in 2016 [1]. Suicide risk assessment (SRA) and management are clinical competencies required for patient care. Strategies used for SRA include the use of formal self-report measures [2], personalized clinical interview however vital information about suicide risk may be missed during that unstructured assessment [3] and structured tool to supplement the clinical interview.

A United Nations General Assembly Special Session for mental, neurological, and substance use disorders: the time has come.

Mental, neurological, and substance use (MNS) disorders are leading causes of the global burden of disease and profoundly impact the social and economic well-being of individuals and communities. The majority of people affected by MNS disorders globally do not have access to evidence-based interventions and many experience discrimination and abuses of their human rights. A United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) is needed to focus global attention on MNS disorders as a core development issue requiring commitments to improve access to care, promote human rights, and strengthen the evidence on effective prevention and treatment.

Application of a needs-driven, competencies-based mental health training program to a post-disaster situation: the Grenada experience.

This report outlines an innovative approach to address post-natural disaster mental health needs in a region in which natural disasters are common---the Caribbean. Instead of traditional external vertical psychosocial interventions commonly used in this region, the authors developed and implemented a mental health interventions training program, in the island country of Grenada, which is focused on enhancing the capacity of local community-based health service providers to provide immediate and continued mental healthcare following a natural disaster. Soon after this training, a hurricane stuck the island of Grenada. A review of the self-confidence in the application of this training and the mental health intervention activities of these community health providers demonstrated that they felt able to effectively identify, intervene, and address post-disaster mental health needs within their communities and that their care of individuals affected continued beyond the immediate post-disaster period, suggesting that enhancing the capacity of local community-based health providers to deal with post-natural disaster mental health needs may be a useful model that may be applicable in other jurisdictions.

An integrated program to train local health care providers to meet post-disaster mental health needs.

This paper describes a post-disaster mental health training program developed by the International Section of the Department of Psychiatry at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada) and delivered in Grenada after Hurricane Ivan struck the country in September 2004. This train-the-trainer program used an integrated community health model to help local health care providers develop the necessary skills for the identification and evidenced-based treatment of mental disorders occurring after a natural disaster. The approach also provided for ongoing, sustainable mental health care delivered in the community setting, as advocated by the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization. This approach is in contrast to the largely ineffective and costly vertical whole-population psychosocial counseling activities that have often been used in the Caribbean following natural disasters.

A competencies-based mental health training model for health professionals in low and middle income countries.

This paper describes a competencies-based training model specifically created to teach needed mental health skills to health professionals in low and middle income countries (LMICs). The model combines a mental health training needs assessment with the delivery of mental health training modules aligned with national/regional mental health priorities and designed to be used by all health professionals at various levels of the health care system. The model also defines a sustainability framework that involves the creation of a multidisciplinary training team embedded in the national/regional health system. The training program consists of a number of modules, each one designed to enhance specific mental health competencies for a variety of health care workers. These modules are linked to a number of clinically useful tools that facilitate knowledge transfer into clinical care while concurrently addressing health equity issues. This model may provide an efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional profession-based mental health training approaches, which have to date not been successful at meeting mental health delivery needs and mental health service priorities in LMICs.

Postgraduate psychiatry training for global mental health: a Canadian experience.

As globalisation has diminished the distance between the developed and developing worlds, it has highlighted the impact of global health issues on domestic health concerns and has underscored the reality of global health disparities. In the Canadian context, there is a need for Canadian physicians to have an understanding of medicine from a global perspective and to appreciate and understand the impact of global health issues on both international and domestic health care. Consequently, there is a need to create and incorporate a global or international health curriculum into general as well as specialty physician training programmes. This will provide future physicians with the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to provide globally informed practice in domestic as well as international health.

An integrated program to train local health care providers to meet post-disaster mental health needs / Programa integrado para entrenar a proveedores de servicios sanitarios locales a satisfacer las necesidades de salud mental después de un desastre

En el presente trabajo se describe un programa de entrenamiento para la atención de la salud mental después de desastres, desarrollado por la Sección Internacional del Departamento de Psiquiatría de la Universidad de Dalhousie (Halifax, Canadá) y llevado a cabo en la isla de Granada después de que el huracán Iván azotó ese país en septiembre de 2004. Este programa de entrenamiento para entrenadores utilizó un modelo integrado de salud comunitaria para ayudar a los proveedores de los servicios sanitarios locales a desarrollar las habilidades necesarias para identificar los trastornos mentales frecuentes después de un desastre natural y aplicar tratamientos basados en pruebas científicas. Este programa también favorece el enfoque actual de atención sostenible de salud mental en la comunidad, promovido por la Organización Mundial de la Salud y la Organización Panamericana de la Salud. Además, se contrapone a las actividades verticales de consejería psicosocial dirigidas a toda la población, en su mayoría ineficaces y costosas, que se han venido empleando en el Caribe después de desastres naturales.

This paper describes a post-disaster mental health training program developed by the International Section of the Department of Psychiatry at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada) and delivered in Grenada after Hurricane Ivan struck the country in September 2004. This trainthe-trainer program used an integrated community health model to help local health care providers develop the necessary skills for the identification and evidenced-based treatment of mental disorders occurring after a natural disaster. The approach also provided for ongoing, sustainable mental health care delivered in the community setting, as advocated by the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization. This approach is in contrast to the largely ineffective and costly vertical whole-population psychosocial counseling activities that have often been used in the Caribbean following natural disasters