Ethical challenges in contemporary psychiatry: an overview and an appraisal of possible strategies and research needs.

Psychiatry shares most ethical issues with other branches of medicine, but also faces special challenges. The Code of Ethics of the World Psychiatric Association offers guidance, but many mental health care professionals are unaware of it and the principles it supports. Furthermore, following codes of ethics is not always sufficient to address ethical dilemmas arising from possible clashes among their principles, and from continuing changes in knowledge, culture, attitudes, and socio-economic context.

Bringing together the World Health Organization's QualityRights initiative and the World Psychiatric Association's programme on implementing alternatives to coercion in mental healthcare: a common goal for action.

Background: Stakeholders worldwide increasingly acknowledge the need to address coercive practices in mental healthcare. Options have been described and evaluated in several countries, as noted recently in major policy documents from the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Psychiatric Association (WPA). The WHO's QualityRights initiative promotes human rights and quality of care for persons with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities.

Atmiyata, a community champion led psychosocial intervention for common mental disorders: A stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial in rural Gujarat, India.

Background: While effective lay-health worker models for mental health care have been demonstrated through efficacy trials, there is limited evidence of the effectiveness of these models implemented in rural LMIC settings.

Aim: To evaluate the impact of a volunteer community-led intervention on reduction in depression and anxiety symptoms and improvement in functioning, and social participation among people living in rural Gujarat, India.

Methods: Stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial was used to assess the effectiveness of delivery of psychosocial intervention across 645 villages in Mehsana district of Gujarat, India between April 2017 and August 2019.

Young people's data governance preferences for their mental health data: MindKind Study findings from India, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Mobile devices offer a scalable opportunity to collect longitudinal data that facilitate advances in mental health treatment to address the burden of mental health conditions in young people. Sharing these data with the research community is critical to gaining maximal value from rich data of this nature. However, the highly personal nature of the data necessitates understanding the conditions under which young people are willing to share them.

Quality of care and respect of human rights in mental health services in four West African countries: collaboration between the mental health leadership and advocacy programme and the World Health Organization QualityRights initiative.

Background: Although recent reports suggest that service users in West African psychiatric facilities are exposed to poor quality of care and human rights violations, evidence is lacking on the extent and profile of specific deficits in the services provided to persons with mental health conditions.

Aims: To evaluate the quality of care and respect of human rights in psychiatric facilities in four West African countries, The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, using the World Health Organization QualityRights Toolkit.

Method: Trained research workers collected information through observation, review of records and interviews with service users, caregivers and staff.

The WHO QualityRights initiative: building partnerships among psychiatrists, people with lived experience and other key stakeholders to improve the quality of mental healthcare.

Psychiatrists have an essential role to play in promoting human rights in mental healthcare. The World Health Organization's QualityRights initiative, in partnership with different stakeholders, is improving the quality of psychiatric care in different countries.

Keshav Desiraju: Mental health matters.

Keshav Desiraju (1955-2021) former Union Health Secretary, who passed away on September 5, 2021, was an uncommon bureaucrat and extraordinary human being. Many obituaries and eulogies have been written about his contribution to public health in India and his personal qualities in helping those in need. Here I will focus specifically on his contribution to the mental health sector in India, to which he contributed significantly in his last few years as a health bureaucrat, and even after his retirement.

Protecting Mental Health Data Privacy in India: The Case of Data Linkage With Aadhaar.

In an underprepared and under-resourced digital mental health system, the linkage of health and personal data with Aadhaar, a biometric system that provides a unique identification number to all Indian residents, poses significant privacy risks to individuals seeking mental health care. We discuss the challenges in protecting mental health data privacy due to these emerging digital health technologies.

Initial Training for Mental Health Peer Support Workers: Systematized Review and International Delphi Consultation.

Background: Initial training is essential for the mental health peer support worker (PSW) role. Training needs to incorporate recent advances in digital peer support and the increase of peer support work roles internationally. There is a lack of evidence on training topics that are important for initial peer support work training and on which training topics can be provided on the internet.

Barriers and drivers to stakeholder engagement in global mental health projects.

Background: Engagement with diverse stakeholders, including policy makers, care providers and service users and communities, is essential for successful implementation of global mental health interventions. Despite being a fundamental factor in the implementation process, evidence about challenges and drivers to stakeholder engagement is limited in the global mental health literature.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 29 recipients of Grand Challenges Canada Global Mental Health funding to assess barriers and drivers to global mental health implementation across a portfolio of projects.