Africa Mental Health Training and Research Foundation (AMHRTF) is a non-governmental organization based in Kenya, dedicated to research in mental and neurological health as well as substance use research to generate evidence for policy and best practice in the provision of affordable, appropriate, available and accessible mental health services. AMHRTF brings together the widest possible spectrum of professionals from both mental health and non-mental health fields to work together under one roof working in research and interventions in mental health.
- Community Mental Health
- Integrated Approach to Non-communicable Diseases Interventions
- Early childhood development
- School mental health
- Mental health in physical conditions
- Mental health in children
- Genetics and Genomics
- Suicide
- Family conflict/violence
- Mental health in old age
- Mental health in pregnancy & after delivery
- Cost-effective biological and psychosocial Interventions
- Psychotrauma & Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and add (PTSD)
- Life transitions
AMHRTF consists of a truly dynamic, multi-disciplinary team of researchers, research support and management staff, working together in mental health research. Their excellent team is truly the reason why we are one of the leading mental health research and advocacy institutions in the region. Establishing AMHRTF was conceptualized in the year 2000 by Professor David M. Ndetei, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Nairobi. It all started when Prof Ndetei and three of his students came together to volunteer their expertise to improve the mental health of underprivileged Kenyans, initially through advocacy. As of today, Prof has heavily invested in the training of Psychiatrists in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Nairobi. His efforts have contributed to Kenya having the best psychiatrists population ratio of any country south of the Sahara and outside South Africa. Africa Mental Health Research and Training Foundation in collaboration with Columbia University New York, USA and the Department of Health of Makueni County was implementing a research study titled Multi-Sectorial Stakeholder TEAM Approach to Scale-Up Community Mental Health in Kenya – Building on Locally Generated Evidence and Lessons Learned (TEAM). These are some of the Success Stories from the project .
SERVICES
- Resilience: with everything going on in the world today; the toll of witnessing intense human experiences and emotions can contribute to negative transformation of one’s own sense of safety and of being competent and purposeful.
- Work life and social life balance: maintaining work is not just a means of earning a living, but also plays an important part in our well being. They offer employee/peer workshops
- Mental health wellness: one of the greatest assets and most commonly ignored for every human being is ‘peace of mind’. Peace of mind to deal with everyday life challenges and situations.
- Mental health awareness for staff: 1 in 5 adults will experience a diagnosable mental illness in any given year. In our rush to “get it all done”at the office and at home, it’s easy to forget that as our stress levels spike, our productivity plummets.
- Mental health awareness for managers: provides training on mental health awareness, skills for managers supporting staff with anxiety, depression and stress, plus sessions for frontline workers
- Retirement/Retrenchment: a well rounded retirement plan begins with a well informed retiree. Despite rising life expectancy, the average age at retirement has been declining over the past four decades.
- Stress management: stress is one of the most commonly experienced mental health concerns. The symptoms can become overwhelming, self-perpetuating, and lead to feelings of helplessness.
- Training/Workshops: professionals are available to give a presentation to your staff/organization. Whether you are seeking information on our programs and services
- Request for presentation: professionals are available to give a presentation to your staff/organization. Whether you are seeking information on our programs and services, referring patients or education on any mental health topic, you can count on us.
Global MINDS @ Western is an Interdisciplinary Development Initiative of Western University, Canada with the objective of using social innovation approaches to catalyze the development, implementation, mobilization and evaluation of solutions to reduce the global burden of mental disorders and related issues (e.g., suicide). Global MINDS is focused on innovating for low resource settings in low and middle income countries (LMIC) (e.g., East Africa region) and for marginalized communities within Canada.
Country
Canada
mHealth was a project that aimed at evaluating the applicability of a model that utilized mobile technology to train, supervise, support and monitor application of mhGAP-IG depression module on non-mental health workers. mHealth successfully developed and utilized a mobile phone application software version of the WHO Mental Health Treatment Gap Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG) to screen and manage depression in patients attending four rural health centers.
Sustainable and adapted treatment strategies to restore psychological functioning and mental health among displaced Somalis: Preparation of a multicenter treatment study was a pilot program that aimed to develop and evaluate new concepts of integrated community-based mental health services to Somali refugees in the urban refugee settlement in Kenya. The studies helped the researchers better understand the attitudes and expectations towards and the usage of different mental healthcare services within the community. The study also recognized that most Somali patients with severe mental disorders have a trauma-related disorders and an addiction problem, often with a multiple functional relationship in the sense that khat is used in order to self-medicate trauma-related symptoms.
The Computer-Based Drug and Alcohol Training Assessment in Kenya (eDATA K) project provided online training to both clinical and non-clinical health workers to acquire competencies adapted from the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) and the WHO ASSIST manuals. The goals of the project was to:
- Helping identify those with SUD
- Provide ethical and non-judgmental care to those with SUD
- Use clinical brief intervention techniques
- Provide basic psychological and pharmaceutical treatment and
- Identify and assist in managing co-morbidities
Country
Kenya
The CREATE Project provides opportunities for people living with serious mental illness to be meaningfully employed and to achieve health and well-being within their communities.CREATE develops locally-viable social businesses and accompanying evidence-based recovery-oriented psychosocial rehabilitation toolkit to employ and support the overall functioning and wellbeing of people living with mental illness.
Contact Person / Email
team.create.kenya@gmail.com
DIALOGUE was a project that sought to empower, supervise, support and include informal traditional and faith healers to deliver evidence based mhGAP-IG adapted psycho-social interventions to reduce mental health treatment gap in Kenya. DIALOGUE discovered that traditional and faith healers (the clergy) and formal health care workers can collaborate successfully to provide mental health services in rural communities with limited access to specialist care.
KIDS is a program in Kenya whose focus is on promoting mental health, preventing illness and treating existing mental illness among children. Child and adolescent mental illness is one of the seven Grand challenges on mental health. The project provided an approach which aimed at promoting children’s mental well-being and support of positive cognitive development to break the vicious cycle of mental illness from continuing through adulthood which might have a detrimental effect on the individual’s quality of life. KIDS has demonstrated the feasibility of a multi-stakeholder intervention service model that maximizes the potential of children by promoting mental well-being, preventing mental illness, and treating existing mental illness.
Country
Kenya
The LIPTIK Project provides entrepruership and psychosocial rehabilitation integration to promote successful recovery, community reintegration and improved quality of life for people living with mental illness.
The TEAM Project is a multi-sectoral stakeholder team approach to scale-up community mental health in Kenya. It aims to build on locally-generated evidence and lessons learnt to effectively integrate mental health services with minimal expenditure of resources into pre-existing, community-based, government funded, formal and informal health services in Kenya. The project is currently taking place in Makueni County to strengthen effective, self-driven leadership and governance and to provide comprehensive community mental health awareness to impact on attitude and behavioral change in the community.
Country
Kenya
Organisation
Address: Atumbato Rd, Nairobi
Country: Kenya
Postal Address: P.O. Box 48423-00100 Nairobi
Email: info@amhf.or.ke
