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This document provides training and guidance on the key standards related to the physical and social environment within mental health and related services that need to be met to promote good outcomes, independent living and community inclusion. Service assessment and improvement tools are provided. Training tools (core and advanced) and guidance tools are introduced. Guidance is given for facilitators and learning objectives, resources and outcomes are provided for three topics: What makes a good environment?; The right to an adequate standard of living in mental health and related services; and Living independently and being included in your community.

This short animated video seeks to explain what Art 27 and the right to work and employment means for all people with disabilities, including people with psychosocial disabilities and focuses on the right to reasonable accommodation

This volume of the African Disability Rights Yearbook is divided into four sections presenting articles, country reports, commentaries on regional developments and a book review. The first section A of the journal presents a number of articles on issues affecting people with disabilities in Africa, ranging from education and rights of children with disabilities to albinism. Section B presents country reports on Djibouti and Madagascar. Section C presents two articles: one on mental health and the other on disability rights developments in the East African Community post-2012. Finally a review of E. Barnes’s 2016 book "The minority body: A theory of disability" is given.

A special issue of the online journal "Intersectionalities - A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, and Practice", Vol 5, No.3 (2016) providing 10 articles on the theme of Mad studies. Titles of papers included are: 

Doing Mad Studies: Making (Non)sense Together; 

An Introduction to Anti-Black Sanism; 

Why Mad Studies Needs Survivor Research and Survivor Research Needs Mad Studies; 

Recovery-as-Policy as a Form of Neoliberal State Making; 

“About Nothing Without Us”: A Comparative Analysis of Autonomous Organizing Among People Who Use Drugs and Psychiatrized Groups in Canada; 

Too Young to Be Mad: Disabling Encounters with 'Normal' from the Perspectives of Psychiatrized Youth; 

Relocating Mad_Trans Re_presentations Within an Intersectional Framework; 

A Desire to be ‘Normal’? A Discursive and Intersectional Analysis of ‘Penetration Disorder’; 

Racialized Communities, Producing Madness and Dangerousness; 

Psy-Times: The Psycho-Politics of Resilience in University Student Life

Purpose: Social inclusion of children with physical disabilities is essential for their mental health. The long-standing conflict and political instability in Palestine since 1948 has resulted in an unprecedented number of children with disabilities. This study aimed to assess social inclusion and mental health of children with physical disabilities in Palestine.

Method: A mixed methods research design was used. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire and a Social Inclusion Questionnaire were administered to 100 children with amputations, 12-18 years of age, in the Gaza Strip. Ten semi-structured interviews were also conducted with personnel working across civil society rehabilitation services in the area, particularly in services that focussed on the physical rehabilitation of children who had lost a limb.

Results: Quantitative findings indicated that 88% of children’s disabilities were caused by war-related incidents. While the sample of children showed on average relatively low levels of psychological distress, males reported feeling more socially included and having better mental health than did females. Furthermore, there was a strong positive correlation between mental health and social inclusion, and a moderate positive correlation between psychological distress and social inclusion. The qualitative data identified different factors that hinder social inclusion, mainly: political instability; under-resourced disability organisations; lack of coordinated efforts; and negative societal attitudes towards disability.

Conclusion: A new questionnaire for social inclusion was developed, which can now be used as a tool to assess social inclusion in similar contexts; as well as a culturally-adapted form of the General Health Questionnaire-12 to assess mental health. There is a clear need for service-providers to move beyond a medical model of care to one that embraces community-based rehabilitation and the realisation of rights, in order to promote the social inclusion and mental health of children with disabilities in Palestinian society.

The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions of psychiatrists and health policy directors about the policy to expand mental health care delivery in Ghana through a system of task-shifting from psychiatrists to community mental health workers (CMHWs). A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was developed and administered to 11 psychiatrists and 29 health policy directors. Key informant interviews were also held with five psychiatrists and four health policy directors. .

Globalization and Health (2016) 12:57

DOI 10.1186/s12992-016-0199-z

Background

Little is known about the interventions required to build the capacity of mental health policy-makers and planners in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We conducted a systematic review with the primary aim of identifying and synthesizing the evidence base for building the capacity of policy-makers and planners to strengthen mental health systems in LMICs.

Methods

We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Knowledge, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, LILACS, ScieELO, Google Scholar and Cochrane databases for studies reporting evidence, experience or evaluation of capacity-building of policy-makers, service planners or managers in mental health system strengthening in LMICs. Reports in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French or German were included. Additional papers were identified by hand-searching references and contacting experts and key informants. Database searches yielded 2922 abstracts and 28 additional papers were identified. Following screening, 409 full papers were reviewed, of which 14 fulfilled inclusion criteria for the review. Data were extracted from all included papers and synthesized into a narrative review.

Results

Only a small number of mental health system-related capacity-building interventions for policy-makers and planners in LMICs were described. Most models of capacity-building combined brief training with longer term mentorship, dialogue and/or the establishment of networks of support. However, rigorous research and evaluation methods were largely absent, with studies being of low quality, limiting the potential to separate mental health system strengthening outcomes from the effects of associated contextual factors.

Conclusions

This review demonstrates the need for partnership approaches to building the capacity of mental health policy-makers and planners in LMICs, assessed rigorously against pre-specified conceptual frameworks and hypotheses, utilising longitudinal evaluation and mixed quantitative and qualitative approaches.

"In this personal reflection, the author is a Syrian refugee who describes his experiences as a psychosocial worker in Syria and with refugees in Turkey and Greece. He highlights how women and children lack safety in the camps. The second section discusses how he became a refugee himself. Due to his experiences in Syria, he now finds himself in a difficult situation in the Netherlands, the county where he applied for asylum and has received a permit, but his ‘cry for help’ remains unheard and unrecognised by the (health) workers in the asylum centre."

Background: Mental health service resources are inadequate in low-income countries, and families are frequently expected to provide care for their relative with a mental disorder. However, research on the consequences of care giving has been limited in low-income countries, including Zimbabwe.

Objective: The study explored the perceived impact of mental illness, reported coping strategies and reported needs of family members of persons diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder or schizophrenia attending a psychiatric hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Methods: A purposive sample of 31 family members participated in in-depth interviews and focus group discussions using standardized study guides. Participants were also screened for Common Mental Disorders (CMD) using the 14-item Shona Symptom questionnaire (SSQ). Qualitative data were analyzed thematically. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 16) was used for quantitative data analysis.

Results: Caregivers experienced physical, psychological, emotional, social and financial burden associated with care giving. They used both emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies depending on the ill family members’ behaviours. Seeking spiritual assistance emerged as their most common way of coping. Twenty one (68%) of the caregivers were at risk of CMD and were referred to a psychiatrist for further management. Caregivers required support from health care professionals to help them cope better.

Conclusion: Caregivers carry a substantial and frequently unrecognized burden of caring for a family member with mental disorder. Better support is needed from health professionals and social services to help them cope better. Further research is required to quantitatively measure caregiver burden and evaluate potential interventions in Zimbabwe.