Recently, I traveled with a team from Yale’s Global Health Leadership Initiative and witnessed the treatment and lack thereof, of those dealing with mental health issues in the country of Ghana. GHLI has partnered with senior health practitioners, policymakers, and health care officials for several years to assist their efforts in treating those with mental health disorders. Our team spent a majority of the time in Accra where we visited Accra Psychiatric Hospital, and met with the Ghana GHLI delegation to discuss progress made to improve mental health care.
March 20, 2014
My Week in Ghana
Recently, I traveled with a team from Yale’s Global Health Leadership Initiative and witnessed the treatment and lack thereof, of those dealing with mental health issues in the country of Ghana. GHLI has partnered with senior health practitioners, policymakers, and health care officials for several years to assist their efforts in treating those with mental health disorders. Our team spent a majority of the time in Accra where we visited Accra Psychiatric Hospital, and met with the Ghana GHLI delegation to discuss progress made to improve mental health care.
March 11, 2014
Why We Do What We Do: Philip Morgan
After joining the ICRC
six years ago, Philip now works in low-income countries where he applies his
expertise in both humanitarian efforts and in prosthetics and orthotics. He was
recently named a facilitator for the Regional Senior Leadership Program
Implemented by Yale GHLI and Management Sciences for Health through the USAID-funded
Leadership, Management & Governance Project. The Program provides
senior decision makers with the skills they need to address health system
challenges. Equipping these national teams to improve their respective
country’s enabling environment for disability and physical rehabilitation
services will enhance USAID and ICRC’s ongoing efforts to establish and improve
accessible and appropriate prosthetic, orthotic, and physical rehabilitation
services.
Philip
facilitates the team from Sudan comprised of six senior leaders from government
and non-profits, clinical and non-clinical, who focus on disability issues. “It
is a challenge to get the team members together, due to their busy and varying
schedules - but with support from Yale GHLI team members and MSH we are able to
manage the team and develop solutions,” he explains. Philip finds it
particularly interesting that despite participants’ various backgrounds, they
have all been able to unite over a common commitment to the program.
“The
response from the first session has been overwhelmingly positive,” says Philip.
“I hope the students continue to pursue this work. Forging strong alliances
across borders would help provide further support to each other’s programs, and
certainly help develop policy with regards to disability issues within each
country.”
Philip
sees great opportunity for continued work in Sudan and hopes to support the
work of the National Authority for Prosthetics and Orthotics (NAPO) and their plan
to set up a school of prosthetics and orthotics within the country. With only
25 specialized clinicians to serve the needs of over 130,000 people in Sudan with
physical disabilities, there is a great need – and Philip wants to help work
towards a solution.
March 5, 2014
Yale Women: Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Seth Nigrosh
As an international relations major at Connecticut college,
classes that relate to public health and global health were not on my radar for
a long time. I have recently become interested in the subject, and realized
that as senior year was coming to a close, I had few ideas about what a job in
the global health industry would look like. When I had the opportunity to
attend Yale's “Women in Innovation: Leading Yale Women in Social and Healthcare
Startups” panel discussion I was eager to go. All three panelists, Barbara
Bush, YC ’04, founder of Global Health Corps; Jennifer Staple-Clark, YC ‘03,
founder of Unite for Sight; and Laura Niklason PhD, MD Yale faculty and co-founder
of Humacyte explained origin of their respective organizations and how they
ended up at the forefront of the global health community.
I was curious to hear how people who do not have any sort of
health or medical background can still be involved in a global health project.
When Ms. Bush spoke about her time at Yale as an architect student and Ms.
Staples-Clark talked about the importance of removing barriers to care, I
realized that global health is an inherently interdisciplinary undertaking.
Scientific work by people like Professor Niklason, whose research into
regenerative tissue and arterial implants is breaking new ground, will always
be needed. But, we also need people who are experts in logistics who can get
new medicines and technologies around the globe, and advocates to keep up
pressure on public figures to respond to global health crises. I used to ask
myself, “Should I have majored in IR? I love it, but I don't want any of those
traditional government or finance jobs!” Now, I see that instead I should be
asking myself, “How can I take what I've learned and apply it to a complex and
intriguing field like global health?” In today's interconnected world, it's not
just what you know, but how you apply it creatively, that matters.