c/o HIFA2015 - Meeting Information needs for Mental Health Care

Dear all.

I've been reading the messages about mental health and information needs in low resource settings. I agree that it's still such a disappointment that certain publishers refuse to make these core documents / books (like Where there is no Psychiatrist and Where there is no Child Psychiatrist) open access. Hope 2013 will bring changes......

I know a few free online/download alternatives for the mental health field:

In the Hesperian.org bookstore you find free downloads of a couple of health care guides in different languages including 'Where Women have No Doctor'. This book contains a brief mental health care chapter. Other helpful Hesperian books like 'Disabled Village Children', and the 'famous one' 'Where there is no Doctor'.
Link: http://hesperian.org/books-and-resources

Another is the WHO 'mhGAP Intervention Guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings'. Free download in English, French and Spanish. This is a 109 pages decision tree manual for depression, psychosis, bipolar disorders, epilepsy, developmental and behavioural disorders in children and adolescents, dementia, alcohol use disorders, drug use disorders, self-harm/suicide and other significant emotional or medically unexplained complaints. It contains also  a chapter on 'general principles of care' and a brief chapter on 'advanced psychological interventions'.
Link: http://www.who.int/mental_health/publications/mhGAP_intervention_guide/en/index.html

The international NGO Basic Needs offers downloads of manuals and reports like 'Community Mental Health Practice, Seven Essential Features for Scaling Up in Low and Middle Income Countries', 'Essential Skills for mental health care',  'Mental Health Care, An Introductory Manual for Training General Health Personnel' amongst others.
Link for books: http://www.basicneeds.org/html/Publications_BasicNeeds_Books.htm
Link for manuals: http://www.basicneeds.org/html/Publications_BasicNeeds_Manuals.htm

For mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian settings the WHO/World Vision/War Trauma Foundation publication is very helpful: 'Psychological First Aid: Guide for field workers', 60 pages and lots of illustrations.
Link for the PDF:
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789241548205_eng.pdf

Or the WHO/IASC 'Guidelines for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings', 205 pages and free downloads available in 7 languages. The manual is distributed on CDrom as well.
Link: http://www.who.int/mental_health/emergencies/9781424334445/en/index.html

For psychosocial support of children the NGO HealthNetTPO offers free downloads of their 'Psychosocial Care Package Children' with Modules, Tools and Publications sections. It contains information that describes the rationale, content and step-by-step implementation of the separate components of a comprehensive psychosocial care package (such as a Classroom Based Intervention, Counseling, Clinical Supervision, Screening and Psycho-education).
Link: http://www.healthnettpo.org/en/1311/psychosocial-care-package-children.html

In the field of psychosocial support for children and adults after emergencies or in HIV projects, the IFRC Psychosocial Centre offers free downloads of their manual like 'Psychosocial interventions - A
handbook', 'Community-based psychosocial support - A training kit', 'Children's Resilience Programme' and more.
Link: ...
This is where I stumbled on in the last few years. Hope it is helpful. Maybe I should write a blog post about it on the in2mentalhealth website, in order to make a comprehensive list which is available on
the internet for a longer period of time. So, if you have any additions please reply in this discussion or mail me with the link!

'Together we know more'.

Roos Korste
psychologist, trainer, blogger and founder of in2mentalhealth:

http://facebook.com/in2mentalhealth

http://www.linkedin.com/in/rooskorste

Plus:
Thanks for the comprehensive list Roos. Handicap International developed a Policy Paper on : "Mental health in post-crisis and development contexts" which can be found here [PDF, 1.1Mb]:

http://www.handicap-international.us/fileadmin/files/documents/PP03_Mental_health_01.pdf

Do feel free to add this to your list of materials. [ *see note below ]

Kind regards

Antony
Antony Duttine
Rehabilitation Technical Advisor in Global Health

[ *Note from HIFA2015 moderator: Neil Pakenham-Walsh

I would also like to mention the Essential Health Links (EHL) gateway. EHL was set up by myself and Lenny Rhine while I was working at INASP in the late 90s and early 00s. It is now hosted by AED Satellife and Lenny continues to maintain it on a voluntary basis. The Mental Health and Psychiatry section is available here:
http://www.healthnet.org/essential-links/mental-health-and-psychiatry

Essential Health Links has more than 750 websites selected according to criteria such as appropriateness for low-resource settings and free access. "Essential Health Links is offered freely for use as a template by others (e.g. medical school libraries, ministries of health, publishers, libraries, NGOs) to develop customised gateways on their own websites. This approach should reduce the risk of duplication of effort while maximising the usefulness of the gateway for specific target groups."

With thanks, Neil PW ]