The overall goal of this proposal is to establish a regional mental health network or """"""""hub"""""""" that will work toward minimizing the vulnerability and social isolation of persons with chronic and disabling mental disorders in the urban areas of Latin America. The proposed Hub for Latin America (HLA) aims to take early, and critical, first steps toward addressing this issue by building on long-standing collaborations between US-based and Latina America-based investigators. The proposed HLA aims to: (a) focus on an important challenge to the mental health of populations worldwide;(b) capitalize on the depth in public mental health and psychiatric research at the partner institutions;(c) extend a burgeoning body of US research demonstrating the efficacy of community-based interventions by adapting them to meet the initial goal of the HLA and developing a generalizable model of Community Health Care for individuals with Severe Mental Disorders The Administrative Core aims to bring together investigators across the Americas working on this HLA in a way that maximizes interaction and that ensures that the aims of this work can be achieved. To do so the Administrative Core has six functions. First, our administrative infrastructure will help us coordinate and integrate the scientific aims of the entire project, track progress and outputs, and make necessary adjustments as the activities of the Hub progress. Second, we will put in place the administrative infrastructure to conduct resource management planning to assure that the Hub Project needs are met. Third, we will create the administrative infrastructure to organize meetings of the Project leaders, facilitate interactions, and disseminate recommendations. Fourth, the administrative infrastructure will help the four co-PIs work closely together, through electronic and in-person communication, to oversee all aspects of the proposed work. Fifth, we will ensure that we have the administrative resources in place to develop projects in partner countries that capitalize on existing resources in such a way that projects implemented here are sustainable in the long-term funded through other mechanisms. Sixth, we will have the infrastructure in place for HLA-wide reports and will communicate with NIMH and other participating research, training, and community units or organizations.
We propose an HLA that aims to develop a sustainable body of research in Latin America that improves task-shifting strategies to facilitate community health care for persons with severe mental disorders. The Administrative Core aims to bring together investigators across the Americas working on this HLA in a way that maximizes interaction, and builds the necessary infrastructure, that ensures that the aims of this work can be achieved.
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