Enhancing mental health research capacity : emerging voices from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) global hubs
Date
2019-04-03
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
Background: Emerging researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) face many barriers, including inadequacies
in funding, international exposure and mentorship. In 2012, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
funded five research hubs aimed at improving the research core for evidence-based mental health interventions,
enhancing research skills in global mental health, and providing capacity building (CB) opportunities for early career
investigators in LMIC. In this paper emerging researchers contextualize their experiences.
Case presentation: Each of the five hubs purposively selected an emerging researcher who had experienced more
than one hub-related CB opportunity and actively participated in hub-related clinical trial activities. The five ‘voices’
were invited to contribute narratives on their professional backgrounds, CB experience, challenges and successes as
an emerging mental health researcher, and suggestions for future CB activities. These narratives are presented as case
studies. CB activities provided broader learning opportunities for emerging researchers. Benefits included the receipt
of research funding, hands-on training and mentorship, as well as exposure to networks and collaborative opportunities
on a global scale. To overcome ongoing challenges of access to funding, mentoring, networking and global
exposure, the emerging voices recommend making mentorship and training opportunities available to a wider range
of emerging mental health researchers.
Conclusions: Investing in CB is not enough to ensure sustainability and leave a legacy unless it is accompanied by
ongoing mentorship and international exposure. Financial investment in building research capacity, promotion of
mentorship and supervision, and international networking are essential to yield well-prepared young investigators
in LMIC as experienced by these rising stars. Governments and policymakers should prioritize educational policies
to support the continuous development and international engagement of emerging researchers. This can advance
strategies to deal with one of most important and costly problems faced by healthcare systems in LMIC: the mental
health treatment gap.
Description
CITATION: Da Silva, A. T. C. et al. 2019. Enhancing mental health research capacity : emerging voices from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) global hubs.
International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 13:21, doi:10.1186/s13033-019-0276-9.
The original publication is available at https://ijmhs.biomedcentral.com
The original publication is available at https://ijmhs.biomedcentral.com
Keywords
Mental health, Health services accessibility, Medical policy, Mental health services, Health administration, Public health, Mental disorders, Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health (US), NIMH
Citation
Da Silva, A. T. C. et al. 2019. Enhancing mental health research capacity : emerging voices from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) global hubs.
International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 13:21, doi:10.1186/s13033-019-0276-9.