Recognising mental health issues in Pakistan

Pakistan has a fast growing population of approximately 178 million, with 42% of it under the age of 14. Mental health receives very little attention in a country struggling to cope with the demands of its exploding population. According to Malik Hussain Mubashir, vice-Chancellor at the University of Health Sciences, Lahore, “There is only one psychiatrist for every 10,000 people in Pakistan, one child psychiatrist for four million children and only four major psychiatric hospitals.”

The International Health Links Funding Scheme (IHLFS), launched by THET, UK-based International Charity and the British Council and funded by DFID, initiated a partnership between the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (PIMS) and King’s College to address the lack of importance given to mental health issues. Under this link, PIMS has organised training for over 300 psychiatrists, lady health workers, school and college teachers and media professionals to help them recognise mental health problems and deal with them sensitively and efficiently.

Shagun Irfan, the principal of City School, found the training session so interesting and informative that she is sending all heads of departments from her school to attend this year’s session. “I was surprised to learn that on average, 15-20% of school children suffer from some sort of mental health problem. After receiving this thorough training, I was able to recognise and address the problems of my students in a much better way”. 

The training helped her identify students suffering from dyslexia, autism and bipolar disorders in her school. According to Shagun, “I am now able to persuade the parents of children who suffer from mental health problems to seek medical help. I am also organising more talks in the school and inviting guest speakers to talk about stress management, mental health disorders and how to tackle these issues.”

Recently, PIMS in partnership with King’s College organised another series of training for Lady Health workers. During these training sessions, over 60 Lady Health Workers will be trained on mental health issues. These Lady Health Workers will act as Master Trainers and cascade this training further.

Dr. Rizwan Taj, head of the Psychiatry Department at PIMS, has been the force behind the project. Under his guidance, all activities were carried out as planned, within the budget and on time. Dr. Taj aims to work on similar projects in the future until his ambition of “mental health services for all” becomes a reality. 

Ending the ‘brain drain’ in Pakistan by transforming Academic Institutions into Knowledge Enterprises!

“I am grateful to the British Council for inviting me to the NCEE Leadership Master class Series. The Master class series greatly contributed to helping me understand the significance of entrepreneurship and innovation for both leadership and management.”  

These were the words of Engr. Muhammad Asghar, Rector, National University of Science and Technology (NUST) about the British Council’s Master Classes.

Master Classes are part of the British Council’s wider commitment to the development of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan’s Knowledge Exchange (KE) initiative in the country. Master Classes are aimed at building skills, understanding and confidence in the people who will be leading on and delivering Knowledge Exchange (KE) in the university sector – developing KE professionals who can operate in supportive environment. Led by UK Experts in a particular field and facilitated by an expert in Pakistan these Master Classes are a perfect example of partnership between the people of UK and Pakistan. Vice Chancellors, Registrars, Senior Management of Universities and key representatives from the industry are the participants of these Master Classes.

By encouraging better understanding and collaboration between universities, businesses and the community, it is hoped to stop the ‘brain drain’ that is a deep concern for Pakistan. The content delivered in these Master Classes was filmed and is being converted into the material to be distributed to the Senior Academics. Almost 3000 faculty members directly and over 250,000 students indirectly are expected to gain benefit from these materials. This will bring fundamental, long-term changes in the way universities operate in Pakistan by helping them release knowledge and research into the wider community.

  

Kashif Khan, Associate Professor and Director of industrial linkages and collaboration at the Iqra University Islamabad, sees this as an opportunity to: “develop from core academic institutions and transform into knowledge enterprises.”

So far the British Council has organised six series of Master Classes covering a wide array of subjects such as: Working with SMEs and Rural Communities, Enterprise Education, Student Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial University Leadership, Public & Community Engagement and Strategy into Action. These Master Classes were delivered by National Centre for Entrepreneurship Education, National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, Cumbria University and Thomas Lawton of the UK.

 

The last Master Class on Supporting Student Enterprise will be delivered by Prof. Alison Price, Director of Education Department at National Centre for Entrepreneurship Education in September 2012.

The Knowledge Exchange is a platform jointly developed by the British Council and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan that facilitates universities to create partnerships with business, government and other organisations to exchange skills and ideas.