Ember impact evaluation paper published in BMJ Global Health

May 10, 2022

Ember impact evaluation paper published in BMJ Global Health

Over the course of our partnerships with our 2020-2021 cohort, Ember team members June Larrieta and Georgina Miguel Esponda carried out the first formal evaluation of our work.

We are excited to announce that the findings of that evaluation have just been published as a paper in BMJ Global Health. You can read the paper in full in English here and Spanish here.

Here's the abstract from that paper to give you a flavour of what to expect:

Community-based mental health initiatives are uniquely positioned to understand the mental health needs of their local population and provide relevant, culturally appropriate and sustainable responses. However, at the grassroots level, mental health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries face key challenges, such as inadequate funding, barriers to demonstrating impact and difficulty engaging with stakeholders. The Ember Mental Health programme establishes 12-month partnerships with community-based mental health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries to support them to address these challenges, grow and achieve sustainability.

This paper outlines a longitudinal qualitative study conducted to evaluate the 2020-2021 Ember Mental Health programme. Data were collected from March 2020 to March 2021 through semistructured interviews conducted with 11 initiatives at various time points throughout their Ember Mental Health partnership. A framework approach was used to analyse all data in its original language. Findings indicated that initiatives particularly benefited from provision of side-by-side mentorship; opportunities for skills strengthening and strategic thinking; occasions to network with other like-minded initiatives and/or experts in global mental health; and support on team empowerment and well-being.

Based on these findings, we put forward various recommendations for funders and other stakeholders working to support community-based mental health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries. Through establishing collaborative partnerships that challenge more top-down, traditional funder–grantee relationships, it is possible to support the rich ecosystem of initiatives working to address the mental health needs of communities.

Resumen


Las iniciativas comunitarias de salud mental están en una posición única para comprender las necesidades de salud mental de su población local y dar respuestas pertinentes, culturalmente apropiadas y sostenibles. Sin embargo, las iniciativas de salud mental en países de ingreso bajo y mediano se enfrentan a retos fundamentales, como un financiamiento inadecuado, barreras para demostrar su impacto y dificultad para establecer relaciones con partes interesadas o colaboradores. El programa Ember Mental Health (o Ember Salud Mental en español) establece asociaciones de 12 meses con iniciativas comunitarias de salud mental en países de ingreso bajo y mediano para apoyarlas a fin de que aborden estos retos, crezcan y sean sostenibles. Este documento describe un estudio cualitativo longitudinal realizado para evaluar el programa Ember Mental Health de 2020 a 2021. Los datos fueron recolectados de marzo 2020 a marzo 2021 por medio de entrevistas semiestructuradas realizadas con 11 iniciativas en varios momentos a lo largo de su asociación con Ember Mental Health. Se utilizó el método framework approach (o método de marco analítico en español) para analizar los datos en su idioma original. Los resultados indican que las iniciativas se beneficiaron de la cercanía con la que se llevó a cabo el proceso de mentoría; de las oportunidades para fortalecer sus habilidades y planeación estratégica; de las ocasiones de establecer redes con otras iniciativas afines y/o expertos en salud mental global; y el apoyo a la capacitación y el bienestar del equipo. Basado en estos resultados, formulamos diferentes recomendaciones para financiadores y otras partes interesadas que trabajan para apoyar las iniciativas comunitarias de salud mental en países de ingreso bajo y mediano. Mediante el establecimiento de asociaciones de colaboración que desafíen las relaciones tradicionales de arriba-hacia-abajo (top-down) entre el financiador y el beneficiario de fondos, es posible apoyar el rico ecosistema de iniciativas que trabajan para atender las necesidades de salud mental de las comunidades.

Citation

Larrieta J, Miguel Esponda G, Gandhi Y, et al. Supporting community-based mental health initiatives: insights from a multi-country programme and recommendations for funders. BMJ Global Health 2022;7:e008906.

Read the full paper in English here. and Spanish here.