Vision
- HealthNet TPO enters fragile communities using ‘health’ as a universal goal to unite people. HealthNet TPO aims to rebuild community structures and trust after warfare by building functional health services, thus uses ‘health’ as a means.
- HealthNet TPO starts from local resources and local strengths, and mobilizes communities to become active stakeholders in health and development.
- Throughout the programs HealthNet TPO is sensitive to gender inequity and violence in relations on all levels.
Strategy
- HealthNet TPO gains in-depth understanding of local resources, capacities, beliefs and needs through action research.
- It develops and implements new interventions to support health and sustainable health care in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
- Among these stakeholders HealthNet TPO selects effective and sustainable implementers and/or partners in the field of health care and relevant Cross-sectoral interventions to strengthen health.
- By monitoring the effect and applying academic research, HealthNet TPO builds the evidence base to disseminate successful models.
Research
The consortia HealthNet participates in, are aimed at scaling up a mental health care package, also in the fragile contexts HealthNet is active. PRIME is a 6-year DFID funded “Program for improving mental health care” (PRIME, www.prime.uct.ac.za), we have been a partner in the consortium since May 2011. In December 2012 we also joined the EMERALD consortium. This is a 5-year EU funded “Emerging mental health system in low- and middle income countries program” (EMERALD). Recently we became a partner in the mhBF consortium; a 3-year “Mental health beyond facilities program” (mhBF) funded by Grand Challenges Canada. The research programs will study whether access to, and coverage of, mental health care can be increased, whether primary health care based treatment is cost-effective, and whether community-based components of care can be integrated in a feasible delivery framework.
Service provision
HealthNet TPO’s psychosocial programmes focus on community awareness, training of community workers, health facility staff and psychosocial assistants to provide a diverse range of interventions. The psychosocial and community awareness programmes also develop capacity of local community members to self organize and cooperate with civil society organisations to prevent not only mental problems, but also address other social problems that may cause longer term harm.
