Ashley Leichner

Job role: 
Mental Health Integration Advisor
Affiliation: 
International Rescue Committee
Member type: 
Practitioner/Implementer
Brief Biography: 

Ashley S. Leichner, MPH, works with International Rescue Committee as their Mental Health Integration Advisor to focus on strengthening mental health integration in humanitarian settings, improving the mental health system and services for clients and caregivers. Since 2013 she was the Senior Global Mental Health & Psychosocial Officer with International Medical Corps. From her base in Washington, DC, Ashley managed the technical oversight of programs in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea, and Mexico, with recent deployments to the Caribbean, Cameroon, Lebanon, Gaza, Jordan, the Philippines, and Nepal. Ms. Leichner focuses on building technical capacity, strengthening monitoring and evaluation practices and developing advocacy approaches to improve the quality of program implementation. She provides guidance and technical assistance to global MHPSS programs with particular focus on community based mental health, including implementation links to child protection, research and program evaluations on early childhood development, psychosocial support within Ebola Treatment Centers, and community based mental health case management.

Regions of interest: 
Africa
Middle East
Central America and the Caribbean
Asia
Population: 
Maternal and neonatal health
Disorders of interest: 
All disorders
Country: 
Anguilla
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Dominica
Ethiopia
Indonesia
Kenya
Lebanon
Mexico
Mozambique
Myanmar
Nepal
Palestine, State of
Philippines
Puerto Rico
Uganda

My contributions

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Fortalecimiento de la respuesta de la salud mental y psicosocial para las zonas afectadas por el desastre de México

El programa tenia como objetivo mejorar la capacidad de respuesta local para cubrir las necesidades en salud mental y apoyo psicosocial de las poblaciones afectadas por el desastre en México.
Region: 
Central America and the Caribbean
Population: 
Children and adolescents
Adults
Older adults
Disorder: 
Depression/anxiety/stress-related disorders
835 reads
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Strengthening the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Response for Disaster-Affected areas of Dominica

The programme aimed to improve the local capacity response to meet the MHPSS needs of Dominica’s disaster-affected populations.
Region: 
North America
Population: 
Children and adolescents
Adults
Older adults
Families and carers
Minority populations
Humanitarian and conflict health
Disorder: 
All disorders
1931 reads
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Integration of mental health and psychosocial support services into primary healthcare in the Middle East

Training healthcare staff and paraprofessionals to provide mental healthcare and expand community and family supports
Region: 
Middle East
Population: 
Maternal and neonatal health
Children and adolescents
Adults
Older adults
Families and carers
Minority populations
Humanitarian and conflict health
Non-communicable diseases (e.g. cancer, diabetes, stroke)
Disability
Disorder: 
All disorders
4373 reads
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Call to Action this #WorldMentalHealthDay: Mental Health Integration in Humanitarian Settings

In this #WMHD blog Ashley Leichner, Senior Global Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Officer from International Medical Corps’ highlights the events taking place to mark this year’s World Mental Health Day and discusses how the MH Integration Toolkit serves an important role in strengthening integrated mental health solutions for improved access to mental health care in vulnerable settings.
Author(s): 
Ashley Leichner
Post date: 
9 Oct 2018
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The Mental Health Integration Toolkit: An initiative to improve mental health integration programs within humanitarian settings

In celebration of the launch of International Medical Corps' (IMC) Toolkit for Mental Health Integration, MHIN interviewed Ashley Leichner (IMC), Zeinab Hijazi (UNICEF) and Fahmy Hanna (WHO), all of whom played a critical role in the development process of the Toolkit to share their insight on how the Toolkit was designed and developed, as well as its potential to improve and expand the horizons of mental health integration initiatives within humanitarian settings.
Contributor(s): 
Ashley Leichner
Zeinab Hijazi
Fahmy Hanna
Post date: 
30 Jul 2018
Approach: 
Task sharing
Prevention and promotion
Detection and diagnosis
Treatment, care and rehabilitation
Training, education and capacity building
Disorder: 
All disorders
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What is the Mental Health Integration Toolkit and How to Use it - Learn here!

This blog was written by the Technical Advisory Group for the Mental Health Integration in Humanitarian Settings Toolkit, developed by International Medical Corps. The blog discusses what role the Toolkit will play for the future of mental health integration in humanitarian settings, how it works to close gaps in mental health service delivery and how the Toolkit can be utilized by the different target audiences at different stages of set up.
Author(s): 
Peter Ventevogel
Sarah Harrison
Fahmy Hanna
Inka Weissbecker
Ashley Leichner
Zeinab Hijazi
Post date: 
26 Jul 2018
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Maintaining momentum: The buzz following the Innovation Fair

The International Medical Corps's MHPSS team recount their experiences and share their thoughts on the recent Innovation Fair held at the WHO/World Bank Group meeting “Out of the Shadows: Making Mental Health a Global Priority.”
Author(s): 
Ashley Leichner
Post date: 
27 May 2016
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The millions around the world living with treatable mental health conditions cannot wait

Author(s): 
Inka Weissbecker
Ashley Leichner
Post date: 
17 Feb 2016