Establishing mental health walk-in clinics in Ilam, Nepal
The mountainous district of Ilam, Eastern Nepal is a region that has one of the highest rates of suicide in Nepal. Ilam is the location of our first mental health walk-in clinic, held monthly and providing the local community with free talking therapies, social support, and if they need it, medication. Jaya’s free mental health walk-in service brought mental health specialists to the region for the first time in its recent history. The people who attend the clinic are typically referred by local health volunteers (known as Female Community Health Volunteers, or FCHVs) or hear about it on the local radio; some walk over four hours to access this clinic.
So far, we have supported over 263 people but continue to receive growing levels of referrals showing there are still unmet needs in the local community.
After 6 months of receiving treatment from our mental health walk-in clinic:
76%
of service users felt valuable and useful
70%
of service users felt able to enjoy normal day-to-day activities
Since the clinics started the numbers of suicides in the region has reduced by
77%
To find out more Jaya Mental Health’s work in Ilam, please read our latest report.
Report
Training local staff
and volunteers
In rural Nepal, health assistants (HAs) and female community health volunteers (FCHVs) receive basic training before carrying out home visits to convey key health messages, including information about vaccinations, childbirth, and HIV prevention. But they report to our team a need to receive mental health training to be able to support the huge numbers of individuals with mental illness in their communities.
To change this, we are training HAs and FCHVs in basic mental healthcare and diagnosis, which helps them raise their status in their own communities and encourages them to shape the delivery of services. As part of this training, we raise awareness and understanding of mental health issues to tackle the stigma and prejudice that surrounds mental illness.
Increasing the skills and knowledge of local health workers is a key approach to creating a cost-effective long-term solution to the lack of mental health professionals in these regions. Our aim is to establish sustainable, long-term local mental health support for the people who live in rural regions and replicate our model of community mental health to many more areas of South Asia.
“I can’t express my happiness and gratitude towards you and your team.
I keep remembering you all every day and night that you came to our place and cured the illness that was so difficult to manage.“
Durga, a service user from our Ilam clinic
Livelihood
Project
To complement the mental health support offered through our regular walk-in clinics in Ilam, we are engaging with a group of service users as well as FCHVs in a project that builds a secure livelihood for people with mental health problems. This project will engage this group in livelihood activities that not only bring additional income in the long-term but create a safe space to encourage healthy habits and routines to improve lives.
This project will encourage the social inclusion of people with mental health problems and help fight the stigma and prejudice surrounding mental illness. The end goal is to help some of South Asia’s most vulnerable people, particularly women and girls, to earn an income, be financially independent and have an active, visible role in community life.
Bringing mental health care to Upper Mustang
Since the success of the mental health walk-in clinics and training of local staff in Ilam, the local government has asked us to expand our work into other regions of Nepal. Working with them we have identified the high-altitude, extremely remote Himalayan district of Upper Mustang as the next region we will focus our efforts on.
The 15,000 people in this district rely solely on one hospital with only eight members of staff, none of whom have any mental health knowledge or experience. Reports of the abuse of people with mental illness are common and levels of suicide are high. The work is challenging but with your support we can change lives.
Like in Ilam, the focus of this project is not only on establishing life-saving mental health walk-in clinics but also on training local staff and volunteers to create a long-term solution to the mental health crisis in this region.
Be part of our journey