Call for Applications: Integrating Care Leadership & Advocacy Program

Practice transformation requires systemic approaches. We need to persuade policy-makers that primary care can deliver effective behavioural and mental health care, and so invest sufficient resource in infrastructure and capacity building. We also need to be mindful of the transferability of knowledge and skills across multiple geographies and health system delivery models.
The Integrating Care Leadership & Advocacy Program is an educational program delivered by the WONCA Working Party on Mental Health, in collaboration with The Farley Health Policy Centre in Colorado and the Columbia University. It is designed to equip motivated family doctors who wish to enable practice transformation that integrates behavioral health care into routine primary care practice.
Following the success of our pilot in 2020 , and to build the evidence for a grant application for a substantive five-year rolling program, we propose to implement a second project with an independent evaluation, to assess feasibility of recruitment and acceptability of revised content and delivery.
We are now looking for eight enthusiastic young family doctors, practising in low- or middle- income countries, to set up a virtual learning community to test our revised program.

Our offer

• An initial survey of participants, including the declaration of a particular behavioural/mental health issue that they want to address in their local situation, and a brief assessment of their level of knowledge in advocacy skills.
• Seven monthly 90-minute virtual meetings, with interval homework assignments requiring two to four hours of personal work by each learner.
• Mentoring by Faculty members for the project developed and undertaken by each learner in their own locality.
• e-versions of Gold & Green (eds): Integrated Behavioral Health in Primary Care; and Dowrick (ed): Global Primary Mental Health Care.
• A certificate of completion of the program carrying the WONCA seal and the marks of the FHPC at the University of Colorado (for those meeting 80% participation requirement).
• An honorarium of US$ 200.

Our selection criteria

We are looking for young family doctors (doctors who are in the first five years of family practice) who:
• are identified through WONCA Young Doctors’ Movement and WONCA Working Party on Mental Health;
• are practising in low-or middle-income countries (LMICs):
o NB: we will give priority to family doctors from LMICs not represented in the previous cohort (i.e. Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, Peru, Sri Lanka or Tunisia); nevertheless, applicants with outstanding qualifications from any of these countries will be considered.
• can demonstrate working knowledge of and experience in behavioral health/primary mental health care;
• can demonstrate leadership experience; and
• are willing to commit (by letter of agreement) to the project from July 2023 through March 2024 to approximately six hours per month for nine months, plus participation in an imbedded program evaluation including interviews at mid-point and conclusion of program.

How to apply

Please send your curriculum vitae, together with a motivational letter explaining how you meet our selection criteria, to Christopher Dowrick on [email protected] and to Sankha Randenikumara on [email protected]
Deadline for applications: Friday 19 May 2023.