The overall goal of the Asia Pacific Research for Mental Health Services (ASPIRE-MHS) Hub is to establish a collaborative network of researchers, service providers and policy makers in the Asia Pacific region to conduct and build capacity in implementation research relevant to scaling up and integrating mental health services in LMIC settings. As evidence grows that non-pharmaceutical treatments are acceptable and efficacious in LMIC for the treatment of common mental disorders there remains a gap in our understanding of how to bring these interventions to scale and create policy-supportive environments to sustain them over time. Once we understand not only the barriers, impeding the implementation of evidence-based mental health services, but also the solutions, we can propose wider-scale solutions to reducing the treatment gap for mental disorders in the region. To achieve this goal, ASPIRE-MHS will undertake research and capacity building activities. The scale up research component of this application is an evaluation of the strategies and costs associated with bringing to scale an innovative transdiagnostic psychotherapy program for common mental disorders in Myanmar. The transdiagnostic program, Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA), has proven impact among Myanmar people and provides the basis for establishing sustainability through the use a single therapy that can be used by non-mental health professionals to treat multiple common mental disorders with different severity, an approach that is more cost-effective implementing the more common single-disorder focused psychotherapy treatments. Based on this research, ASPIRE-MHS will generate a roadmap, including the relevant measurement tools, to assess organizational readiness to implement evidence-based mental health services and to monitor organizational progress to achieving service sustainability that will be relevant to other LMIC settings in the region and globally. For the Capacity Building Component, ASPIRE-MHS will partner with co-investigators from Viet Nam, Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea to build capacity in the implementation and utilization of mental health services research in the region. We will implement activities specifically designed to strengthen the capacity of 1) researchers in partner countries to conduct mental health implementation science research and 2) policy and decision makers to interpret and appropriately utilize the scientific evidence to improve mental health policies and programs.
These aims will contribute to developing dynamic sustainable Learning Health Care Systems in the region. The ASPIRE-MHS Hub will create a network of trained implementation science researchers who can work together with policy and decision makers to design and carry out locally relevant mental health research in the Asia Pacific region. Through the trainings and established collaborations, the co-investigators from all partner institutions wil be in a strong position to promote effective translation of research into policy-relevant action.
Despite evidence that non-pharmaceutical treatments are acceptable and efficacious in LMIC for the treatment of common mental disorders there remains a gap in our understanding of how to bring these interventions to scale and create policy-supportive environments to sustain them over time. Once we understand not only the barriers, impeding the implementation of evidence-based mental health services, but also the solutions, we can propose wider-scale solutions to reducing the treatment gap for mental disorders in the region. This study will generate a roadmap, including relevant measurement tools, to assess organizational readiness to implement evidence-based mental health services and to monitor organizational progress to achieving service sustainability in Myanmar that will be relevant to other LMIC settings in the region and globally.
