Integrating Care Leadership & Advocacy Program
The Integrating Care Leadership & Advocacy Program is an educational program delivered by the WONCA Working Party on Mental Health and WONCA YDM, in collaboration with The Farley Health Policy Centre (FHPC) in Colorado and the Columbia University. It is designed to equip motivated young family doctors who wish to enable practice transformation that integrates behavioural health care into routine primary care practice.
Following the success of the pilot in 2020, and to build the evidence for a grant application for a substantive five-year rolling program, it was decided to implement a second project with an independent evaluation, to assess feasibility of recruitment and acceptability of revised content and delivery.
Applications were called to select eight enthusiastic young family doctors practising in low- or middle- income countries (LMICs), to set up a virtual learning community to test our revised program. It was wonderful to see an overwhelming response not only from the LMICs, but also from high-income countries, reflecting the need of such a program.
After a rigorous review, we are delighted to announce the following eight successful applicants.
• Marium Ahmed (Pakistan)
• Brunee Dorsett (Caribbean)
• Yuri Dutra (Brazil)
• Stephen Engmann (Ghana)
• Ethyl Golosinda (Philippines)
• Carmen Gutierrez (Mexico)
• Mercy Wanjala (Kenya)
• Zhang Yuanuan (China)
The program is planned to be kicked off in the first week of August. The program will run for seven months with virtual meetings and interval homework assignments. There will be 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. These young doctors will be mentored by faculty members for the project developed and undertaken by each learner in their own locality. The participants are offered e-versions of two valuable behavioural/mental health textbooks related to primary care in addition to an honorarium. Finally, a certificate of completion of the program carrying the WONCA seal and the marks of the FHPC at the University will be awarded to all eligible participants.
We are looking forward to a great programme!
Sankha Randenikumara
Young Doctors’ Lead - WONCA
Faculty member - Integrating Care Leadership & Advocacy Program