mhGAP Implementation in Kashmir

This Innovative mhGAP project has been initiated, designed ,and implemented by myself and was submitted as innovative project under my name. All the work done in this project so far with support from Kashmir Government, WHO Geneva and Royal college of Psychiatry has been entirely coordinated by me and the implementation and evaluation phase is also entirely coordinated by myself. I am the only associate who is responsible for coordinating it at ground level.

Feedback by one of the medical students who is part of online innovative interactive workshop between medical students of Kashmir medical college and UK medical students on mhGAP who also attended the mhGAP training session in Ganderbal where the monitoring and implementation phase of mhGAP is being implemented in collaboration with Royal College of Psychiatry London, Government of Jammu and Kashmir with support from WHO Geneva "Thank you sir for taking us along and being so patient with us.Today was even more productive than the last time.We covered three modules and also had a revision of the previous session, and (my friend) was telling me she enjoyed a lot and she was actually considering psychiatry now:) It was a great experienced and I learned a lot.What I like about mhGAP the most is that its very practical and easy to implement!"

mhGAP innovative project in Kashmir being presented by me at the Euro Psychiatry Global Summit at Barcelona Spain http://psychiatry.global-summit.com/euro/Psychiatry-Tentative-Program.pdf

.Respected All You would be pleased to know that by the Grace of God we successfully completed the first online supervision of mhGAP trained doctors of District Ganderbal at Govt Medical College Library Doctors from more than 21 primary care centres attended the supervision session and received online supervision from more than 10 UK and Dutch based consultants using the online supervision site of Kings College London. The supervisors were impressed by the enthusiasm of the doctors and the quality of cases presented by the doctors. The mhGAP team were thankful to Principal Medical College who gave permission to use the library at the request of Director Health services Kashmir. Todays supervision completed the monitoring and supervision component of the mhGAP project in Ganderbal Wasalam and Regards Aqeel .

The completed project God willing will be presented by me and Dr Mohd Muzaffar Khan state coordinator for mhGAP in kashmir at the 7th mhGAP forum in Geneva in october this year.

Dear Sayed Many congratulations - you have been shortlisted in the RCPsych Awards 2015, in the category Psychiatrist Volunteer of the Year. The shortlists can be seen in full on our website at www.rcpsych.ac.uk/awards2015 I am pleased to invite you and a guest to attend the RCPsych Awards Ceremony on 10 November 2015, when the winners in each category will be announced. Tickets are free of charge. Date Tuesday, 10 November 2015 Venue The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 21 Prescot Street, London E1 8BB Liz Cowan Communications and Marketing Manager

Thank God we have successfully managed to complete the monitoring and evaluation project of mhGAP at District Ganderbal. The results ,data along with recommendations have been submitted to the Royal college of Psychiatrists London .The results will be presented at the WHO 7th mhGAP forum in Geneva God willing by me and Dr Muzaffar and formal report with recommendations will be submitted to the Kashmir Government by the President of the Royal College like last year. I am highly thankful to all the doctors of District Ganderbal who worked with zeal and enthusiasm to make this project a success the recommendations of which will be implemented across the world

Thank God we completed the on line Interactive session between the medical students of UK and medical students of Government Medical College Srinagar where by the students discussed the chapters of mhGAP Interactive Guide using the online interactive site devised by Kings College London

workshop cum commemoration of the “World Suicide Prevention Day” at Srinagar Current News Service (CNS) “World Suicide Prevention Day”Srinagar,September,10,2015-CNS:-a Holistic Healthcare Initiative working under the aegis of HELP Foundation J&K today held a workshop cum commemoration of the “World Suicide Prevention Day” at its Hyderpora office. The day was marked with a discussion and brainstorming session among the various representatives of prominent ngos like Unicef, Actionaid, CRDP, Borderless world foundation, HPVT, Drug de-addiction centre, SOS children villages, Childline 1098. Besides few Advocates, Consultant Psychiatrists, Media personnel, and Religious Scholars participated in the workshop and shed light on the issue. In this workshop the suicide issue in Kashmir was discussed threadbare and efforts were made to formulate the strategies to address the same. Considering the alarming trend in suicide rate in Kashmir, the workshop attempted at putting this discourse before public and channelizing the resources for developing the preventive strategies to deal with same. Few experts like Dr. Aqeel Hussain shared the WHO report on suicide as he was a part of it when it was made open to public and Advocate Mohd. Altaf Khan shared the legal aspects and perspectives on the same. Dr. Mohd. Muzafer Khan- Director Drug de-addiction centre also shed light on the pattern of Suicidal ideations and drug addiction. Apart from this, Dr. Suhail Masoodi- Director CRDP, Mr. Hilal Bhat- Unicef representative, Mr. Nazir Ganai – Rising Kashmir Editor, Mr. Tanveer Ahmad- Coordinator Action aid, Dr. Shabir- Medical Officer PCR, and Mr. M.D. Ronga- HPVT representative also shared their views regarding the prevention of problem of Suicides in Kashmir. The focus was put on To put efforts in drafting an authentic research base in order to carry out studies and intervention in the same area. To promote advocacy for suicide prevention with Govt. bodies particularly Police dept. at par with the standards set by the international community. Building up strong networks with mental health institutions to deal with the issue of suicide & its cause & effect relationship at individual and institutional level. Implement the modalities and strategies at the basic school level. Incorporation of the various Life-Skills at the elementary level to supplement the prevention strategies regarding Suicide. Ensuring the follow-up of suicidal attempted cases after being reported and dealt with the relevant medical intervention. Consideration and revisiting the legal aspects of suicide and its implications. Sensitizing the communities and civil society to deal with the issue of suicide at the grass-root level.

Was Humbled by the compliment of Prof Yousuf Ex Head of Medicine GMC Srinagar at CRDP function at kashmir University .Professor Yousuf had attended the full 5 days of mhGAP Training in collaboration with Directorate of Health Services Kashmir, Royal College of Psychiatry and support by WHO. Regarding the training Prof Yousuf said that it was because of that training he has added a full chapter on mental health to the next edition of his book Emergency Medicine.

Alhamdulillah We have managed to successfully complete the online interactive project.I on behalf of Royal College of. Psychiatry and WHO am thankful to final year and prefinal students of Gmc Srinagar who despite their busy schedule actively participated in the project and made it a success. I am also thankful to members of this group who provided valuable support. Certificates on behalf of Medical college Srinagar, Royal College of. Psychiatry and WHO will be given after 10th of September Am sharing feedback of one of the student Asalamualaikum Sir. I mostly had only postive experience from the experience. Firstly, it was good to talk to your peers from a developed country and compare our lives, ways of studying, patient interaction etc. It was a novel experience to know how much the developed countries are different from us, not only in infrastructure but in various ways. The problems we had in our countries were different, family set up, cultural diversity. It was good to come across different opinions. In psychiatry, it was great to know about a single disease from differing perspectives. Of similar diseases in contrasting backgrounds. How administration of a developed countries takes over the role of the family, and how much dependent the developing countries were on social contacts. Also the stigma and awareness of different diseases in our countries. I think I got a lot of exposure from doing this project. Even the minor things had so many significance when we compare them in our countries. I also knew more about the diseases and their approach to diagnosis. Lastly, I made a good friend who was always polite .I never had any issues related to the time difference. Net connectivity was initially poor due to the floods. Rest we managed and I am really glad that I did. Future Recommendations : improving the method of communication, the site had some issues when the speed was slow and with different browsers. Making pairs on the basis of matching times of being available. Rest it was great! Thanks a lot for giving us this opportunity!

mhgu - brother ibrother.com.cn/k_mhgu/page17 mhgap intervention guide [Clicks:50949times]. [Concerned ... mhgap evidence resource centre [Clicks:25981times] ... mhgap kashmir [Clicks:110434times]. Some statistics about mhGAP on line

Had an excellent WEBINAR session which was supported by mental health worldwide, and in2 mental health. I am grateful to MHIN for supporting the webinar session which will be uploaded on the page once it is converted into u tube format . More than 65 participants had registered from all over the world .It was attended by Professors, representatives of IMC pakistan , iraq ,uk and other countries.The feedback about the session was excellent.I hope people will be able to use it in developing mhGAP related work across the world.

PLEASE REVIEW THE FACEBOOK PAGE AND WEBPAGE ATTACHED TO THIS PAGE ABOVE FOR FURTHER DETAILS AND UPDATES

THE MHIN HAS KINDLY AGREED TO UPLOAD THE WEBINAR SESSION ON THE MHIN.PLEASE LOOK FORWARD TO VIEWING THE WEBINAR SESSION AS SOON AS IT IS ULOADED ON THIS PAGE

THE mhGAP KASHMIR INNOVATION HAS BEEN NOMINATED AS THE MOST POPULAR INNOVATION ON THE MHIN

The webinar videos have been completd and mad into two parts .They have been submitted to the MHIN team as requested by them and will be uploaded God Willing on the mhGAP page of MHIN soon. look out for the videos

The webinar videos have been uploaded and are in the resource section of the page below the introduction under multimedia section. Thanks to MHIN team

By the Grace of God we have successfully completed both the online and practical component of the Interactive project the details of which have been updated in the multimedia section of the site

One Day Psychological First Aid workshop was conducted by myself and Dr Mohammad Muzaffar Khan at Centre for Mental Health Services Kashmir under the aegis of HELP Foundation using the WHO Formulated Psychological First Aid Module. The module was held in collaboration with Directorate of Health Services Kashmir and supported by WHO Geneva. The significance of Psychological First Aid is evident by the fact that this years Mental Health theme is Psychological First Aid . it is worth mentioning that I got Psychological First Aid incorporated into the MOU signed between the Health and Medical Education Department of Jammu and Kashmir and RCPsych on the recommendation of Dr Shekhar Saxena Director WHO Mental Health and substance misuse and head of mhGAP in the world . Dr Saxena was also responsible supervising the formulation of Psychological First Aid by WHO and is responsible for implementing the 2013-2020 WHO Global Mental Health Action Plan around the world. The training was attended by nearly 50 participants from diverse professionals which included representatives of various NGOs ,doctors, psychologists,social workers and other allied professionals and more than 30 are on waiting list for the next training. We appreciated the enthusiasm of the participants who managed to reach the venue despite lack of transport due to restrictions. The training was also attended by deputy head of red cross of south asia division as well as all members of the MSF besides members of all reputed organisations working on ground to help people effected by current political turmoil. The recommendations and report of the workshop will be submitted to WHO during the psychlogical first aid workshop review session at the WHO headquarters Geneva on 10th and 11 october which will be attended by myself on the invitation of Dr Shekhar Saxena. . The participants appreciated the relevance of training in the current political turmoil and requested more trainings to be conducted which will be conducted by HELP Foundation in collaboration with Directorate of Health Services kashmir and suppported by WHO. I would like to offer my thanks to Mrs Nighat Shafi chairperson of Help Foundation for providing excellent logistic support in the current turmoil without which it would not have been possible to conduct the training. I am also thankful to Dr saleem ur Rehman Director Health Services Kashmir patron of mHGAP in Kashmir for supporting this workshop. My special thanks to Dr Shekhar Saxena and his team for providing technical support and placing complete trust in me and Dr Muzaffar for conducting the training on behalf of WHO. We hope the training will be helpful in the current political turmoil in addressing the physical, emotional and psychological needs of the people of kashmir.

Professor Henrikje Klasen who came to Kashmir twice as part of mhGAP team is no more..........

http://blogs.kenniscentrum-kjp.nl/2015/06/15/henrikje/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-visiting-child-psychiatrist-in-addis-ababa-part-1

Response to statement published in the peer review journal on the recommendation of Principle author of the Journal Prof Ashok Malla as well as Editors of the journal following completion of investigation. The aim of this correspondence is to provide the evidence in reply to the following statement A 2-week Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) training initiative delivered by The Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK) in 201331 created little improvement in access to mental health services. Published in https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0706743719839318. https://kashmirobserver.net/2015/10/12/mental-health-gapkashmir-project-nominated-as-best-in-world/ An email was sent to the Principle Author Professor Ashok Malla to provide evidence /explaination regarding the statement as their was no reference/explaination to justify the statement . The email correspondence and the reference is enclosed below. Dear Dr Malla I am Dr Sayed Aqeel Hussain Consultant Psychiatrist who is based in UK but working in kashmir projects on behalf of WHO and RCPsych ....over last one decade... We had a successful project in district ganderbal where we trained all doctors and nurses from 21 Phc s of ganderbal in the use of WHO validated mhGAP training programme .....followed by robust evaluation and monitoring of training and the results were presented at the WHO assembly and Royal College Congress.... I can understand u ran another project in ganderbal and published your results . It is unfortunate that the paper tries to discredit the work done by us in kashmir without providing any evidence ....which I think goes against the ethical standards . I am sharing the webinar about the amount of work done in kashmir and the results of training as well. https://youtu.be/nobinWoTPjA Regards Dr Sayed Aqeel Hussain MRCPsych FRCPsych Consultant Psychiatrist International Collaborating Partner WHO headquarters Geneva Master trainer for WHO Research coordinator for PRIME in india Ex Consultant Govt Medical College Srinagar RESPONSE FROM PROF ASHOK MALLA. Dear Dr. Hussain, I am sorry to hear about some misunderstanding about our respective projects. I have forwarded your email to Dr. Margoob, who was really the local Co-PI on this project. Having never worked there I was a relative outsider and perhaps not fully aware of what had gone on before the project which I brought there funded through a competitive grant from Grand Challenges Canada. I am sorry if there are things in the published report that have offended you. That was never the intention. Let me see what Dr. Margoob has to say and I will get back to you or he will. With kind regards, Ashok Ashok Malla, MBBS; FRCP; MRCPsych; DPM; FCAHS Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University Dear Dr Malla Thank you for your mail can you let me know whether you have received any feedback from Prof Margoob ..... we had two projects in kashmir .one trained prof from all 12 districts of kashmir ...followed by refresher course one year later where they shared their feedback. And second was exclusively for entire doctors and nurses of entire district Ganderbal followed by intensive three month monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness of training and online supervision using kings college London devised supervision site ......obviously Prof Margoob was not part of any of the project so it is unfortunate that he commented on a project about which he had no idea how it was done and implemented on ground .....The fact they were permanent doctors of primary care services they were able to continue to implement the training on ground and continue to do so ..... Lets hope we get clarification from Prof Margoob so that things can be rectified on ground and the chapter closed . Regards Dr Hussain Hello, I have re-read your original email. Based on what you have said, i.e., disagreement with the content of a published peer -reviewed paper, I would suggest the proper course in such situations (the only course) is to write to the editor of the journal with a letter (as a formal letter to the editor) and ask her-him to consider publishing it. The editor may see it fit to get a response from the original authors of the paper. There cannot be any other course. Please do not send me any more emails as it is likely to achieve nothing. With regards, Ashok Ashok Malla, MBBS; FRCP; MRCPsych; DPM; FCAHS Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University Dear Dr Malla I thought it was the way forward , but it was important to get feedback from authors as to why this statement was made .As we have not heard anything back from Prof Margoob regarding the statement , I will write to editors and request them to publish it. Regards Dr Hussain Following the correspondence it was mutually agreed to submit the statement to editors of the SAGE JOURNAL to investigate the matter and to recommend future course of action following the completion of the investigation. Following the completion of investigation the editors recommended to submit the statement of facts with evidence with regards to statement made by the Authors of the paper regarding the mhGAP training project in Kashmir. As no response was received from Prof Margoob and the process of investigation was started by Editors of the Journal the entire correspondence was shared with Royal College of Psychiatrists London and WHO Geneva who were principle parties in the training programme especially the Royal College of Psychiatrists London which has been specifically mentioned in the statement made by the authors. It is important to mention that Professor Malla is himself a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrist London. One Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Mudasir Firdosi who along with being the student of Prof Mushtaq margoob in Institute of Mental health and Neurosciences Kashmir during his postgraduation and has published several papers along with Professor Margoob who served as Head of Department of the Institute before retiring in 2013 took objection to the statement. He Is also a member of Royal College of Psychiatrist London and is currently working as a Consultant Psychiatrist in London. Dr Firdosi made a charged and emotionally strong statement for objecting to the statement made by Porfessor Margoob in the paper even before reading the statement . Dr Firdosi was advised to read the statement which he did and felt that there was nothing wrong in the statement and it was entirely my responsibility to prove the success of the project. It was highlighted to Dr Firdosi that the burden of proof is usually on the person who brings a claim in a dispute and the necessity of proof always lies with the person who lays charge. No further statement was received from Dr Mudasir Firdosi and all correspondence with Dr Firdosi stopped. BACK GROUND OF THE PROJECT. The two week mhGAP training programme was conducted in 2013 when I was working as a consultant psychiatrist in institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Kashmir. A proposal was discussed with the head of Department of the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Kashmir to invite the Royal College of Psychiatrist London to impart training to professionals working in primary and secondary care services as part of WHO devised mhGAP training module to train professionals in order to reduce the gap between service need and service delivery . The mhGAP training module was devised under the guidance and supervision of `Dr Shekhar Saxena then Director WHO mental health and Substance use. The HOD and the Institute did not give approval to the proposal and the proposal was submitted to then Director Health services Kashmir Dr Saleem ur Rehman by Dr Mohammad Muzaffar Khan Consultant Clinical Psychologist Director Police deaddiction Centre on my behalf. The project proposal was immediately approved by Dr Saleem ur Rehman who is a man of vision and has contributed immensely to developing Health care services in the primary care settings. He was also awarded the best administrator for managing delivery of emergency health services in primary care during the massive floods that hit the valley of Kashmir in 2014 following the successful completion of second mhGAP training project. Following the approval of the proposal Dr Muzaffar took over the role of state coordinator of the mhGAP training project in Kashmir. Following the approval a formal request letter was taken by me on behalf of Director Health services kashmir Dr Saleem ur Rehman to the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Prof Dame Sue Bailey to depute trainers through volunteer and International Psychiatry special interest group under the leadership of Dr Peter Hughes then Chairperson of the group and master trainer of mhGAP having conducted mhGAP training across the globe on behalf of WHO. The proposal was immediately approved by the President of the College Professor Dame Sue Bailey. Following the approval a special training programme was conducted by Dr Peter Hughes and Dr Sophie Thomson to train the trainers in the use of WHO devised mhGAP training module and following the training more than 12 Consultant psychiatrist volunteered to be part of training group to conduct mhGAP training in Kashmir. Director WHO Dr Shekhar Saxena offered technical assistance on behalf of the WHO and provided training manuals of the mhGAP. The two week training programme received logistic supports from various organisations including Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Action Aid India an European NGO working on mental health in kashmir, HELP foundation a local NGO, Jammu and Kashmir Police through Police deaddiction services kashmir and TCI cements. The two week training programme was successfully completed resulting in training of more than 200 professional both from Govt and private sector . Doctors and Nurses were deputed from all 12 districts of Kashmir by Directorate of Health services Kashmir . Besides doctors and nurses, psychologists, social workers ,teachers, lawyers.police personnals and allied professionals attended the training. Professor Vikram Patel who was named among the 100 most influential persons in the world by TIME magazine specifically deputed Dr Rahul Shindia who was representative of PRIME In India to attend the training. Professor Mohammad Yousuf Ex Head of Department medicine Government Medical College Srinagar attended the full 5 day training course and added a chapter on mental health to his book on Emergency medicine following the completion of training. The entire training report was formulated by myself and Dr Peter Hughes and submitted to then Comissioner Secretary Health and Medical Education Mr Gazanfar Hussain and then Director Health services kashmir Dr Saleem ur Rehman. The link of the report which has been uploaded on the Kashmir page of MHIN website supported by WHO, Grand Challenges Canada and London school of Tropical Medicine is enclosed below. LINK TO REPORT.PUBLISHED UNDER REPORTS IN THE INNOVATION SECTION. https://www.mhinnovation.net/innovations/mhgap-implementation-kashmir?qt-content_innovation=4#qt-content_innovation LINK TO REPORT PUBLISHED ABOUT WORK DONE IN KASHMIR WHICH WAS SUBMITTED TO GOVERNMENT OF KASHMIR INCLUDING CHIEF MINISTER AND HER EIGHT CABINET MINISTERS. Journal of eISSN: 2373-6445 Psychology & Clinical Psychiatry Case ReportVolume 7 Issue 3 Mental Health and Youth of Kashmir Sayed Aqeel,1 Mohammad Muzaffar Khan,2 Shekhar Saxena,3 Saleem ur Rehman4 1Consultant Psychiatrist Lincolnshire partnership NHS Foundation Trust, UK 2Consultant Psychologist and Director Police Deaddiction services Kashmir, India 3Director WHO Mental health and Substance Abuse 4Director Health Services Kashmir, India Correspondence: Sayed Aqeel, Consultant Psychiatrist Lincolnshire partnership NHS Foundation Trust, UK Received: February 10, 2017 | Published: February 17, 2017 Citation: Aqeel S (2017) Mental Health and Youth of Kashmir. J Psychol Clin Psychiatry 7(3): 00438. DOI: 10.15406/jpcpy.2017.07.00438 http://medcraveonline.com/JPCPY/JPCPY-07-00438.php Copy To 1. Hon’ble Chief Minster Ms Mehbooba Mufti 2. Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh 3. Hon’ble Minister for Health and Medical Education Mr Bali Bhagat 4. Hon,ble Minister for Revenue Relief and Rehabilitation Syed Basharat Ahmad Bukhari 5. Hon’ble Minister for Information Technology, Technical Education & Youth Services 6. & Sports Mr Imran Raza Ansari 7. Hon’ble Minister for Education Mr Naeem Akhtar 8. Hon’ble Minister for Social welfare ARI & Training Science and Technology Mr Sajad Gani Lone 9. Hon’ble Minister for finance Culture Labour & Employment Mr Haseeb A Drabu mhGAP PROJECT CONSIDERED AS ACHIEVEMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR http://epaper.greaterkashmir.com/Details.aspx?id=10342&boxid=13454796 LINK OF FEED BACK BY TRAINEES….. https://sayedaqeel.wixsite.com/kndri/ffeedback-about-mhgap-in-kashmir . LINK OF FEED BACK BY TRAINERS….. https://sayedaqeel.wixsite.com/kndri/over-all-feedback-by-trainers FEEDBACK IN NEWS BY TRAINEES ABOUT THE PROJECT. https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/gk-magazine/human-placebo/ SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT… https://sayedaqeel.wixsite.com/kndri/mhgap-in-kashmir- RECOMMENDATIONS AND FEEDBACK BY PROFESSIONALS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE REGARDING THE PROGRAMME. https://sayedaqeel.wixsite.com/kndri/expert-recommendations-world-over LINK TO RESOURCE SECTION ON KASHMIR PAGE OF MHIN https://www.mhinnovation.net/innovations/mhgap-implementation-kashmir?qt-content_innovation=4#qt-content_innovation NEWS COVERAGE ABOUT MOU WHICH WAS SIGNED FOLLOWING THE SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF FIRST PHASE OF TRAINING. https://www.mhinnovation.net/sites/default/files/downloads/innovation/multimedia/MOU.png THE WEBINAR CONDUCTED ON BEHALF OF WHO FOLLOWING THE COMPLETION OF SECOND PHASE OF TRAINING IN DISTRICT GANDERBAL, The training was followed by intensive phase of monitoring and evaluation over three months for which a research fellow with a masters in psychology was recruited for three months to collect data from 21 primary care centres . the monitoring and evaluation was followed by online supervision by trainers from UK using the Kings College London medicine Africa website specifically devised for areas with shorter bandwidth. ADD FOR WEBINAR. https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/events/mhgap-kashmir LINK TO WEBINAR…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nobinWoTPjA&ab_channel=sayedaqeelHussain FEEDBACK TO WEBINAR. Dear Aqeel, Thank you very much for sharing your Kashmiri experiences in your webinar yesterday - and for including so many beautiful photographs of the region. I was impressed by how much work you put into achieving senior buy-in to the training in both UK and Kashmir: this is an important though time-consuming process. It was good to see some familiar faces, including Peter Hughes, involved in the delivery of the training. The information about procedures for distant supervision using links such as MedicineAfrica was very helpful, as was the emphasis on competencies rather than knowledge and attitudes. You presented persuasive evidence that your training is already having an impact, and I look forward to reading the results of further evaluations. And I love the idea of the Human Placebo! Thinking about how our WONCA group might be able to help you, one key element of course is that we can offer primary care expertise and credibility from a variety of different settings and cultures around the world. I was interested in Shekhar Saxena's advice about training primary care providers in the management of stress disorders; that is perhaps an area in which we could combine our competencies. Let us keep in touch. Kind regards, Christopher Dowrick BA MSC MD FRCGP Professor of Primary Medical Care B121 Waterhouse Buildings University of Liverpool Liverpool L69 3GL, UK The Report has also been quoted as reference by the paper on mhGAP training in Pakistan which has been quoted as reference itself by the authors and considered as hope for future trainings. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6699027/ In addition to the model we deployed, there are reports of using other models of care in conflict-ridden areas. For example, in the tribal area of North Waziristan, Pakistan, which has a large, internally displaced population as a consequence of armed conflict, Humayun et al. (2017) conducted mental health camps to identify cases and provide psychosocial support and treatment.32 They used volunteer professionals from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, to bolster the scant local services, and used Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) guidelines to train local health workers. Notably, unlike us, Humayun et al. relied on an existing corps of health workers and not LHWs; did not conduct a long-term follow-up; and did not report outcomes. It may therefore be worthwhile to investigate a combination of their model and ours in areas of highly variable resource availability. Scaling our model up to the entire region of Kashmir would require the involvement of individuals (opinion leaders, politicians and figures of traditional authority) and institutions (health, development and finance departments) that hold the key to public culture, policy, and funding. Further innovation of mixing this with improved primary health care or other models should also be explored. Mental healthcare models like ours, and the one used by Humayun et al., offer hope not only in low- and middle-income contexts but parallel environments elsewhere. For instance, Canada’s remote northern communities, too, have high needs, poor resources and geographical isolation and could benefit from such innovative, low-cost, high-impact interventions. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5454790/ Our mhGAP intervention was the first of its kind following a humanitarian crisis for an internally displaced population in a high security zone in Pakistan. The training was very much part of an overall MHPSS response where monthly mental health camps were held (Humayun et al. 2016). These camps helped identify relevant & culturally sensitive training needs and the curriculum was accordingly adapted as per recommendations (Patel, 2013). Furthermore, the selection of priority disorders for the curriculum was guided by fieldwork, as opposed to discussion based curriculum described, for example by Hussain & Hughes, 2013. Furthermore, in Kashmir, participants were divided into large groups of prescribers and non-prescribers to address the diversity of participants. But we found that the diversity amongst much smaller groups (~20 each group) was most helpful. LINK TO REPORT.PUBLISHED UNDER REPORTS IN THE INNOVATION SECTION. https://www.mhinnovation.net/innovations/mhgap-implementation-kashmir?qt-content_innovation=4#qt-content_innovation The work done by the authors has also been published in the MHIN with mhGAP kashmir present at the bottom of the page as similar content https://www.mhinnovation.net/innovations/testing-innovative-low-cost-model-improving-mental-health-services-rural-district Despite being fully aware about the evidence of our work the authors chose to ignore it and made a statement without any reference to substantiate their claim. Finally Grand Challenges Canada who were the funders of the Project by Prof Ashok Malla and Professor Mushtaq Margoob have dissociated completely from the published paper as well. Grand Challenges Canada @gchallenges Replying to @Dr_SayedAqeel @sayedaqeel1 Thanks for reaching out. Grand Challenges Canada, and other funding sources mentioned, had no role in data collection, analysis interpretation or in the writing of this study. I hope this correspondence once published will clarify any misunderstanding created due to the statement regarding the mhGAP project published in the paper. Special Thanks to Amit Kumar Executive Editor - SAGE Textbooks SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd Rachna Sehgal Asst. Commissioning Editor – Journals SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd. Jessica Lipowski Publishing Editor I, Journals STM For considering and impartially investigating the matter and accepting and publishing the statement . Kind Regards Dr Sayed Aqeel Hussain MRCPsych FRCPsych Consultant Psychiatrist International Collaborating Partner WHO headquarters Geneva Master trainer for WHO Research coordinator for PRIME in india Ex Consultant Govt Medical College Srinagar

Following the exceptional quality of training being delivered by Dr Mohammad Muzaffar Khan Consultant psychologist ,state coordinator mhGAP and RCPsych training programme in Kashmir and founding member of Police deaddiction services kashmir and Dr Sayed Aqeel Hussain Consultant Psychiatrist , International collaborating partner WHO headquarters Geneva , International coordinator mhGAP and RCPsych training in kashmir and chairman mhGAP kashmir trust over the last one decade the State disaster relief force SDRF and National disaster relief force NDRF formally requested Dr Muzaffar and Dr Hussain on the recommendation of DGP kashmir Mr VK singh to train more than 40 members of the state and National disaster force in order to establish the first 24 x7 crisis team in kashmir to deal with rising incidence of suicide in kashmir . The two day workshop which concluded today was inaugurated by DGP Police Mr V K Singh and SSP Mr Haseeb ur Rehman . The training was conducted in collaboration with mhGAP trust kashmir and delivered by Dr Muzaffar and Dr Hussain using the WHO devised training modules on suicide The training involved training on developing communication skills , risk assessment, identifying risk and protective factors multidisciplinary approach, networking and ,providing appropriate advice and support and psycho education sensitively to the caller and his family with the aim of reducing suicidal risk and appropriate referral where needed as part of assessment and management of a person who seeks help via crisis line . The trainees were also trained in the use of mhGAP app as part of assessment and management . The 30 member team will be based at the Crisis team control centre and will provide 24x7 support via more than 10 toll free hot lines . Following the recommendation by Dr Aqeel and Dr Muzaffar DGP police Mr V K Singh agreed to formally invite RCPsych team to impart further training which includes training the trainers . This will be the 7th mhGAP training in kashmir and the team hopes it to become a role model to successfully establish crisis teams in all districts of kashmir and other states of India as well. The team will also conduct research on incidence prevalence risk and preventive factors in all districts of kashmir and make necessary recommendations to Govt in order to reduce the rate of suicide in kashmir and contribute to the over all target of WHO of reducing suicide by 2030.