You can find a series of educational resources available to the public below. This includes content from our conferences, workshops, and capacity building programs.
About the Workshop
On July 30, 2017, SMART Africa investigators, Drs. Inge Petersen, and Arvin Bhana, and Ms. Erica Breuer from Alan J. Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health facilitated a half-day Theory of Change (ToC) pre-conference workshop. This event was held at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala, Uganda as part of the 2nd Annual Conference on Child Behavioral Health in sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of the ToC workshop was to introduce participants to the concept of ToC and demonstrate how the concept could be developed and used in the planning of child and adolescent mental health services at the regional/district levels. Over 30 people representing NGOs, district level representatives from Masaka, Rakai, Kalungu and Lwengo, academicians, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) colleagues, and SMART Africa team members participated in the workshop.To read more about this event, please click here and also do explore more resources below:
About the Conference
Millions of African youth face daily challenges, including bereavement due to loss of parents to AIDS, extreme poverty, conflict, displacement, illness, or physical and sexual victimization, all of which can contribute to poor behavioral health. In many African countries, the development and scale-up of evidence-based behavioral health services for children and youth needs greater attention.
To address this need, this inaugural conference brought together policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and community members to begin to collaboratively develop and ultimately test theoretically informed, culturally appropriate, evidence-based and youth- and family-focused service models. This event also launched the Global Behavioral Health Fellowship program for new investigators and Ph.D. candidates committed to behavioral health research in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fellows have been paired with a senior scholar to collaborate on conference-related research publications.
Conference organizers originate from Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and the U.S.
The conference schedule can be found Here
Presentations at the conference can be found Here
About the Conference
From July 31st—August 2nd, 2017, in Kampala at the Sheraton Hotel, SMART Africa Center hosted the Collaborative Hubs Meeting for Global Research on Mental Health as well as the 2nd Annual Conference on Child Behavioral Health in Sub- Saharan Africa. The Collaborative Hubs meeting brought together all five NIMH-funded hubs working in over 15 countries across the globe to discuss research questions and ongoing projects related to scaling up mental health interventions, sustaining high-quality mental health care in resource-limited settings and fostering evidence-based mental health policies and programs. As a follow-up to the first annual (July 2016) conference, the second conference was officiated by Hon. Jacob Olanya, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda. The purpose of the conference was to: Bring together researchers, NGOs, government officials, and other stakeholders from Sub- Saharan Africa to move forward the conversation initiated during the July 2016 first Annual Conference around child behavioral health in Sub-Saharan Africa and Offer the SMART Africa Global Child Health Fellows an opportunity to share their experiences, thus far, with a wider and global audience.
About the Conference
SMART Africa Center and ICHAD were ecstatic to co-host the 3rd Annual Conference on Child Behavioral Health in Sub-Saharan African in Masaka, Uganda between July 30th and August 1st, 2018. Bringing together approximately 300 conference participants from Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and the United States, the conference provided a platform for participants to discuss how to achieve sustainable impact on child behavioral health. Conference participants included stakeholders such as teachers, parent peers and community health workers from the SMART Africa-Uganda study, as well as government officials such as the Minister of Education, the Minister of Children and Youth, the LC5 Chairperson of Masaka, and the Mayor of Masaka, researchers, religious stakeholders including the Bishop of Masaka Diocese, Junior Scholars, Global Fellows and NGO representatives. In addition to workshops and presentations, the conference included the SMART Africa Field Research & Implementation Report to Community Stakeholders. Hon. Dr. John Chrysestom Muyingo, State Minister for Higher Education, Hon. Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi, State Minister of Youth and Children Affairs, as well as Dr. Benjamin Ola. Akande, Senior Advisor to the Chancellor and Director of Africa Initiative at Washington University in St. Louis were the Guests of Honor for this year’s conference.
About the Conference
In late July, SMART Africa and ICHAD hosted their 4th Annual Conference on Child Behavioral Health in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The 3-day conference that took place in Masaka, Uganda, brought more than 450 researchers and practitioners, policymakers, community leaders and stakeholders (including children and their caregivers) from the U.S. and across SSA to address this year’s theme of “Bridging the Gap between Research, Implementation, and Policy” around issues of child and adolescent behavioral and mental health in SSA. Highlights included an opening address by Dr. Shelli Avenevoli, the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). She highlighted the importance of global collaborations and the role of implementation science to address challenges around child behavioral and mental health. Other NIMH Officials in attendance were: Holly Campbell-Rosen, Program Officer, Division of AIDS Research and the Center for Global Mental Health Research; Collene Lawhorn, Health Science Policy Analyst in the Office of Science Policy, Planning and Communications; and Beverly Pringle, Director of the Center for Global Mental Health Research.
More information and details about the conference can be found here or on our website. We also have a brief video of the conference available here. Stay tuned for our conference report!