Geetha Jayaram
Johns Hopkins University, USA
Title: She for all: Engaging women leaders to advance community and global mental health in low-resource settings
Biography
Biography: Geetha Jayaram
Abstract
One World Health Organization’s mental health plan objective is to provide comprehensive, integrated and responsive mental health and social care services in community based settings. Today, around 70% of India is rural, with limited health care facilities and medical resources; 35% of India’s population is under age 15; 28% of the rural population is in the lowest wealth quintile, 41% of women aged 15–49 are uneducated. One third of women in rural India experience physical or sexual violence during their lives, and 70% of these affected women suffer from severe mental illness. Common mental disorders among women in rural India are associated with low education, poverty, lack of access to running water in the home and hunger. This may lead to suicide, triggered by interpersonal problems, domestic disputes, and financial stress. Women outnumber men in completed suicides. The awareness of lack of treatment is increasing among women in rural India. Mental disorders are highly prevalent, have greater effects on role functioning than other chronic physical illnesses. Project Maanasi is a solution to educate, train and treat women and children in villages in Southern India through humanitarian grants and services. Key elements of the program are: integration with primary care; use of village female community health workers; patient, family, physician and nursing education and training via culturally congruent means.