Ferazzoli, M.T. orcid.org/0000-0003-3684-1998 and Kpobi, L. orcid.org/0000-0002-7074-5804 (2024) It takes a village: what lessons can the UK learn from rural community mental health services in Ghana? Journal of Integrated Care: Practical evidence for service improvement, 32 (1). ISSN 1476-9018
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide new insights into and offer potential solutions to the challenges encountered by mental health services working with remote, rural or underserved communities in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors reflect on the utility of integrating conventional clinical approaches, with preventive care and empowering work within the community, to provide culturally sensitive and accessible mental health services. The authors describe an example of community intervention from a mental health service in Ghana designed to enhance reach within remote and rural communities and identify potential lessons for practice in the UK.
Findings
The partnership between community mental health services and the rural communities, including families and existing social frameworks, applies collaborative care to overcome the lack of resources and facilitate the acceptability of mental health services to the local population. There are a series of important lessons from this experience including the importance of understanding the culture of a community to optimise reach and the importance of working IN the community and WITH the community.
Originality/value
This paper is novel because it provides learning from a model of care applied in the global south that has potential for implementation with underserved populations in the UK. The authors suggest a reframing of the notion of community care to encompass existing frameworks of community, not merely a biomedical conceptualisation.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Integrated Care: Practical evidence for service improvement. This version is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. |
Keywords: | Rural communities; Mental health care; Cultural sensitivities; Inequality; Global south |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Research Institutes Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 10 Nov 2023 10:29 |
Last Modified: | 28 Oct 2024 16:33 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Emerald |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1108/jica-07-2023-0057 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:205156 |