West Africa faces enormous mental health challenges,聽including lack of sufficient mental health professionals and聽clinical infrastructure, limited access to medication, and pervasive societal stigma around mental illness. UW Medicine’s mHealth for Mental Health Program has deep partnerships with researchers, mental health advocates, clinicians, traditional and faith leaders, and people with lived experience of mental illness in West Africa. Together, they collaborate to develop digital health approaches to combat stigma, support humane care, and improve mental health outcomes using blended interventions.
The National Institutes of Health also recently published about their efforts on the Fogarty International Center website.