Rawalpindi : In a 3-day national consultation meeting organized by Rawalpindi Medical University in collaboration with World Health Organisation on Mental Health Diploma targeting general practitioners (GPs) and family physicians, syllabus for the planned course was presented while the participants discussed the need, feasibility and utility of the proposed diploma.
The meeting organized here at RMU was attended by over 35 local participants including Vice Chancellor at RMU Professor Dr. Muhammad Umar, Professor Emiratus Malik H Mubbashar, Director at WHO Collaborating Center for Mental Health Research and Training and Director Center for Global Mental Health Pakistan Professor Fareed Aslam Minhas and other stakeholders.
In addition to the local participants, Dr Khalid Saeed, Regional Advisor Mental Health and Substance Abuse, WHO/EMRO, Dr. Jinan Usta, President of the World Organization of Family Physicians (WONCA) East Mediterranean region and Clinical Associate Professor at the American University in Beirut, Dr. Julian Eaton, a British psychiatrist and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Mental Health at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Senior Mental Health Advisor for CBM International and Gohar Wajid, Technical Officer, Health Professions Education WHO/EMRO also attended the meeting.
The meeting discussed the draft curriculum developed by WHO including the content, teaching methodology, assessment and certification mechanisms, faculty and trainee criteria.
The curriculum presented in the meeting that has been finalized would be sent to the University Syndicate for logistics and to get approval from PM&DC so that enrollment could be started, said Professor Fareed Minhas while talking to ‘The News’ on Friday.
He said the main objective of the proposed course is to overcome problem of treatment gap and lack of specialized services for patients living with psychiatric disorders particularly mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) disorders.
He added majority of patients with mental and substance use disorders lack access to decent services and effective interventions with the ‘treatment gap’ estimated to be around 75-86 per cent especially in lower middle income countries including Pakistan while mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) disorders account for 10.4 per cent of total disease burden as measured by Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), peaking in early adulthood (20-30 years of age).
He said to compensate the treatment gap, general practitioners and family physicians will be trained to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes relevant to provide mental health care within Primary Health Care settings along with supervisory and referral support to their peers and to act as a bridge between specialists and health care workers
In the meeting organized from 12th February to 14th February, the session on Day 1 was chaired by Professor Malik H Mubbashar and session on Day 2 was chaired by Dr. Jinan Usta while Dr. Julian Eaton chaired the session on Day 3.
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