PDO's COVID-19 Mental Health Response
BACKGROUND
Psychiatric Disability Organization (PDO Kenya) is user-led community-based mental health organization operating from Nakuru, Kenya. It was formed and is run by mental health lived experience experts and clinicians. We are driven by a passion for promoting mental wellness and assisting those affected to recover in dignity within their community. We are also youth-focused and youth-led, with the average age of our team at 27.7 years.
Our key pillars
1. Mental health equity – reducing disparity is access to quality care caused by systemic neglect and discrimination.
2. Community-based, recovery-oriented services – attains WHO Quality Rights standards, focused on recovery and keeping people away from institutions.
3. Person-centered, human rights-based approach – services are respectful, non-coercive and protect the person’s dignity.
4. Technological innovation in service delivery – we harness the power of technology to reduce cost, increase coverage and avail specialist care to underserved communities.
5. Power of lived experience expertise – experts by lived experience are at the centre of care and service delivery.
Our key pillars
1. Mental health equity – reducing disparity is access to quality care caused by systemic neglect and discrimination.
2. Community-based, recovery-oriented services – attains WHO Quality Rights standards, focused on recovery and keeping people away from institutions.
3. Person-centered, human rights-based approach – services are respectful, non-coercive and protect the person’s dignity.
4. Technological innovation in service delivery – we harness the power of technology to reduce cost, increase coverage and avail specialist care to underserved communities.
5. Power of lived experience expertise – experts by lived experience are at the centre of care and service delivery.
Pamoja Initiative
In Kenya, studies show that 10.8% of Kenyans have a mental illness at any point in time. However, the government invests just 0.01% of the health expenditure on mental health and has only 62 government psychiatrists serving 49 million Kenyans. Consequently, mental health services remain practically inaccessible to most Kenyans, particularly those who need it most – the poor and marginalized groups.
Bridging the gap
Mental illness can be a very lonely place to be, especially when no help seems to be forthcoming. Pamoja means ‘we are one in Swahili. The #PamojaInitiative is about reaching out and bringing help to the many who suffer without help.
Pamoja is a community-based recovery model anchored on technology and community-based psychosocial support. Our outpatient clinic is supported by the Wellbeing Lounge, Pamoja's mental health unit on wheels, and a network of local non-specialist mental health lay workers at the grassroots with specialists located far away via video conference technology enabling underserved communities to access the highest quality services at their doorstep.
Bridging the gap
Mental illness can be a very lonely place to be, especially when no help seems to be forthcoming. Pamoja means ‘we are one in Swahili. The #PamojaInitiative is about reaching out and bringing help to the many who suffer without help.
Pamoja is a community-based recovery model anchored on technology and community-based psychosocial support. Our outpatient clinic is supported by the Wellbeing Lounge, Pamoja's mental health unit on wheels, and a network of local non-specialist mental health lay workers at the grassroots with specialists located far away via video conference technology enabling underserved communities to access the highest quality services at their doorstep.
A 3-pronged approach
Advocacy, affordable treatment, and social support are the initiative’s focus areas.
The innovation has won accolades internationally, including being featured in the UNAIDS Ten Global Community Innovation booklet of 2020, winning MIT Solve 2021, Waterfall Global Awards 2022 and Echoing Green Fellowship 2022. It has three pillars;
Advocacy, affordable treatment, and social support are the initiative’s focus areas.
The innovation has won accolades internationally, including being featured in the UNAIDS Ten Global Community Innovation booklet of 2020, winning MIT Solve 2021, Waterfall Global Awards 2022 and Echoing Green Fellowship 2022. It has three pillars;
- Task-shifting – we employ a stepped care approach where lived experience experts are trained as task-shifted lay counselors and mental health champions in their community.
- Telepsychiatry – We use a video link to connect these task-shifted lay counselors and their clients at the community with PDO specialists locally and abroad for instant referral services, consultation, training, and supervision.
- Cultural adaptation – our model is homegrown and culturally sensitive. It needs adapted interventions refined through feedback from local stakeholders and our clients.
Click to view the Mental Health Task Force report
|
Click to download the Kenya Mental Health Action Plan Report
|
