TORONTO Treating epilepsy with an affordable $300 device in Bhutan, rolling out mobile mental health clinics to the remotest areas of Uganda and even extending a single psychiatrists reach to an entire African island using technology.
These are only a handful of the Canadian-financed projects that are working on inventive ways to help people with mental health in the most far-flung places in the world.
Last week, Grand Challenges Canada poured $270,000 in seed money to 21 global mental health projects that show promise.
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Grand Challenges Canada is funded by the federal government and its grant program helps pay for research in developing ways to treat diseases in the developing world. So far, its spent $7.7 million in funding mental health research.
Mental health is every part of global health as malaria. Its a huge burden of disease and its really neglected thats why Grand Challenges picked [this topic]. It can be transformational by shining a spotlight, Dr. Peter Singer, CEO of the organization, told Global News.
If a Canadian patient is sick with depression, he or she has access to a doctor, to treatment via medication or therapy, and support along the way.
In other parts of the world, these kinds of resources arent accessible.
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Now imagine that same person in the developing countries where they might be stigmatized as being possessed, locked in a room, chained to a tree. Its very unlikely to get access with a mental health worker, Singer said.
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5 ways Canadian-funded scientists are addressing epilepsy, mental health in developing countries