This is an online platform dedicated for the development and promotion of technology-based mental health programs to increase access to mental health care, especially in low resource settings. The platform welcomes mental health professionals, IT experts, researchers and policy makers from around the world to connect, communicate, and share their ideas and resources.
Our Purpose:
- To share learning and expertise by collaboration
- To develop, test, and scale up innovations in order to promote mental health
- To reduce the treatment gap by using technology-based innovation
The Network hosts a Telepsychiatry Innovation Lab which is dedicated to develop innovative mental health projects, including:
- Learn to Care: Caregivers share text, audio or video of a disruptive behavior or psychological problem of their child to our system and our expert team evaluate the behavior and develop a customized feedback of the behavior. The feedback includes a detailed description of the scope for improvement, guidelines for customized therapy with a link to join and a role modeling audio or video service for clear understanding, learning and practicing. A closed facebook group page has been created to connect the caregivers to peer support. Here they can share their experiences addressing problems, trying different solutions and support each other in a way that promotes collective learning and reduces their stress and depression.
- Development of Bangla Depression Application: This is a 10-item application developed for the assessment of depression. The application is designed to make assessment easier for clinicians and psychologists. It also helps clinicians to monitor the response of the interventions. Data from this application is being used to develop a database for high-risk populations and a culturally customized intervention guideline.
- SMS Based Stigma Reduction Program: In this experimental project, regular weekly SMS messages are sent to a family member from each family unit recruited with information regarding stigma linked in the body of the SMS message. The project also contains a control group from another community in the same district who not recieve the SMS messages. The levels of sigma are compared and evaluated through mixed methods at baseline, 6 months and 12 months.
3D 2nd Floor, Rupayan Trade Center, Banglamotor, Dhaka-1215, Bangladesh
National Institute of Health (NIH), USA National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Bangladesh University of Toronto
National Institute of Health (NIH), USA