Pilot training on serious mental disorders in slums of Bangladesh held
Staff Reporter :
The Telepsychiatry Research and Innovation Network (TRIN) Limited, the implementing partner of ‘Transforming Access to Care for Serious Mental Disorders in Slums- The TRANSFORM Project, recently launched of two pilot training programs- community health workers (CHWs) and traditional and faith-based healers (TFH) as part of comprehensive training manual development.
The aim of the pilot training was to test the feasibility of contents and facilitation approaches. The 03 days program was held in Banolota Party center, Mirpur 11, Dhaka.
The TRANSFORM-Bangladesh aims to increase access to biomedical care by developing a collaborative approach among traditional and faith-based healers, primary health care partitioners, mental health professionals, and community health care workers.
It is also working to develop culture-specific, effective, and acceptable training manuals for the traditional and faith-based healers and community health workers of the slum community.
It is expected that skills and capacity of TFHs and CHWs will be enhanced through comprehensive training, and they will be able to identify SMDs, be sensitized enough to play a positive role to refer the SMD identified persons in Korail to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
The training was a combination reflection, discussion and synthesis where participation was ensured through open discussion, question answer, role play and storytelling. Prominent mental health expert Dr. MD Golam Rabbani, Ex Director NIMH, Dr. Helal Uddin Ahmed, Dr. Shahana Parveen and Dr. Tayabur Rahman from NIMH, Dr. Nahid Mahjabin Morshed, BSMMU, Dr. Rahanul Islam, from the Central Drug Addiction Treatment Center conducted different sessions of the training. The pilot training was conducted with same groups and organized outside the original field implementation site.
The learning and feedbacks from the pilot training will be used to modify TFH and CHWs manuals that will be used to conduct training in the study site, Korail slum, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Tanjir Rashid Soron, Principal Investigator of TRANSFORM Project coordinated the overall pilot program.
