March 12, 2013

Similarities: A Healthy Nation and Body


Kristina Talbert-Slagle, PhD,
  Photo by Peter Hvizdak / New Haven Register
Associate Research Scientist, GHLI

A healthy body, like a healthy nation, contains many systems that need to work together in order to defend against threats.  A breakdown of these systems will render both a body and a nation susceptible to invasion – be it insurgency or infection.  As retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal and I recently presented at Yale University, for both the body and a nation to fight off insurgencies, the internal systems must be well organized with a holistic approach to maintaining overall health and stability so the insurgencies cannot win the support of the population in a nation or take over the human body.

We identified and examined how threats to a country and human body are similar. As with the case of the AIDS epidemic and the war in Afghanistan, both are issues that would have benefited from early action and counterinsurgencies. Just as microorganisms infect the body of someone with AIDS by exploiting the unhealthy body’s resources to replicate and spread, insurgents in Afghanistan focused on gaining power in an unhealthy nation in the same way. Sustained stability is essential in both the health of a nation and the health of a body. In Afghanistan, stability is sought by keeping schools open, providing access to electricity, water, and sanitation and aiding farmers as well as in targeting insurgents. To combat AIDS, funding, education and research also prove key factors in building and maintaining health of the body.

When the body’s circulatory, nervous, musculoskeletal and immune systems all work together, it wards of multiple infections every day. When these systems do not work in coordination, the body can be overcome by an infection, as happens with untreated HIV infection leading to AIDS. Medical treatments and social determinants affect the success of the compliance and treatment among AIDS patients. By linking complex systems to fight insurgencies in a nation and infections in a vulnerable human body, we can fight off constant threats and rebuild health. To read a news article about this event, click here.

March 4, 2013

Addressing Mental Health Issues Around the World


Maureen Canavan,
Associate Research Scientist

Recruitment and Retention of Mental Health Workers in Ghana published in the February 28, 2013 issue of PLoS, once again brings attention to challenges that face health care systems to provide quality care for mental health patients around the world.  Although this particular study was conducted in Ghana – which has an estimated 2.8 million residents with mental health problems, the struggles this country experiences are indicative to challenges also present in other countries.

In the United States, the wave of school shootings has heightened the already existing political and medical battle on how to address and treat those suffering with mental illness. Yet, discussion surrounding building an effective workforce in this area of health care is still at a minimum. More than other areas of medicine, mental health care relies on trained workers rather than technology and tools. This is why GHLI researchers chose to interview mental health workers in Ghana to help determine factors that motivate this workforce. With only 11 psychiatrists serving a population of 25 million people, psychiatric nurses preform most of the direct mental health care.

From our interviews we learned what motivates these workers and what discourages them in the workforce. Motivating patterns include a desire to help patients who are in need, positive daily interactions with patients, intellectual interest in psychiatry or behavior and good relationships with colleagues. Many interviewees also noted being drawn to mental health because of the close bond between workers in this field of health care.  Workers were discouraged by a lack of resources at the hospital, a rigid supervisory hierarchy, lack of feedback on work performance and few opportunities for career advancement within mental health.  

We found that strengthening interpersonal and team dynamics may be a critical and cost effective way to increase worker motivation and ultimately strengthen the mental health care system.

Overall, its seems that whether in Ghana or at any other health care facility dealing with mental illness issues, relationships may be integral to the retention and performance of staff– a key factor in the ultimate success of treatment for mental health patients.  

To read Recruitment and Retention of Mental Health Workers in Ghana, click here