Global Mental Health Consortium

Health and social challenges are expensive on resources and providers. Mental health conditions such as Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder cost trillions of dollars. Mental health conditions are complex, and can be treatment resistant issues to address from the lenses of culture, place, trauma, and situation. Healthcare is a fragile system. Enabling mental health providers such as psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, and therapists to practice wherever and with appropriate training/translation would fill the gap during natural disasters, traumatic events such as shootings, or major public health outbreaks. On top of using policy and resources to create a global consortium on mental health, capital through venture funds, public-private partnerships, and foundations would train the next generation of clinicians, especially those underrepresented in the field, such as people of color, those with disabilities and LGBTQ+ people. A true world movement would be undertaken through human centered design and organizing to promote wellbeing and mental health at all stages of life from pregnancy to end of life. 

The solution is policy organizing, a global consortium of mental health professionals, translators, and continuing education educators. The technology is utilizing a globally personal health information compliant electronic medical record and telemedicine system to allow mental health services to those in need irrespective of time zone or situation.

The solution serves those who do not have access to mental health services currently. The global consortium movement would promote sliding scale and pro Bono services especially for those dealing with racial equity, financial distress, natural disaster and other challenges.

My team includes mental health professionals, policy workers, translators, disability rights advocates, emergency management professionals and most importantly social workers. I have connections to technological and digital transformation professionals to continue the work to close the tech gap and provide high quality trauma informed mental health care to all especially those experiencing hardship or those with health disparities and oppression in their day to day lives. As a community based researcher and practitioner, I will engage communities to gather their expertise to make them change agents and to validate if the methods are what they desire, need and if they are effective.

As a social worker with policy, education, mental health, hospital, hospice, and youth experience I have prototyped this idea with key players in mental health and this model would provide a new and innovative approach to deliver healthcare at a global and adaptable scale. 

Infinite 

I would like to use Solver and mentor expertise to navigate the complex system of global mental healthcare, technology, translation, culture, and emergency management of natural disasters and pandemics. 

The solution brings together expertise from around the world together. Global health is truly being achieved and mental health equity. This could lead to positive foreign policy and global collaboration in other arenas. People from all walks of life agree that mental health is important. The market could benefit from more highly trained and adaptable mental health professionals and workers would be able to work with populations all over the world. Translators would increase in demand; including sign language.

I would like to engage in a literature review and business plan formulation in a year. In five years I would like to complete publications and white papers about the feasibility of having mental health be a global consortium and social enterprise. 

Global use of psychiatric emergency departments and emergency department use for mental health conditions. Global Happiness Scale. Data on mental health spending. PHQ-9 and other diagnostic criteria, screeners as they are developed.

As a theory of change, I propose this solution uses the theory of self transcendence (Pamela G Reed, 2012) Patients are vulnerable in mental health condition and fragile healthcare situations. They are able to achieve wellbeing with personal factors, contextual factors, and self transcendence. In other words, global health and its practitioners when combined in a connected body of healing and power can heal more adaptively and with more agility. Self-transcendence is a human capacity to expand personal boundaries in many ways, for example, intrapersonally, interpersonally, and transpersonally to connect within self, with others and nature, and with purposes or dimensions regarded as larger than or beyond the self (Reed, 2012) Therapy such as using the arts and connecting struggling patients to clinicians provides a form of self transcendence. 

The core technology is policy action, human connection, education, internet, telehealth, electronic medical records, and translation. Possibly the use of drones and other technology would be used to get to high risk environments such as a natural disaster. 

I aim to recruit people of all backgrounds including gender, race, sexuality, socioeconomic status, disability, education, genetic information, etc.

This platform provides mental health professionals to those in need but also for those that do not want to see a practitioner in their area diversifying their options of treatment. Mental health is an emerging and important health indicator and many communities including the United States could benefit from various practice models, cultural knowledges and theoretical orientations.

Through venture capital, philanthropy, government and private partnerships, this solution will ensure mental health is accessible to those most in need.

HRSA awarded UTEP approximately 2 million dollars to train behavioral health professionals.