Science
To advance these foci, mhSEVA Lab is pioneering the knowledge-exchange model of designing, delivering and disseminating culturally adapted and contextually-valid approaches to reduce human suffering and increase thriving for the most-in-need and high-risk populations globally. These include trafficking survivors, refugees, displaced communities and other people living with limited resources.
mhSEVA Lab achieves this through partnerships with global agencies such as the United Nations, iNGOs/NGOs, governments and public partnerships. Our mission is achieved via advancing and improving measurement in psychotherapy outcomes research as well as hinging all initiatives in simultaneous partnering within domestic and international collaborators.
Core tenets of the mhSEVA Lab include:
Sustainability
All mhSEVA Lab projects aim to achieve long-term sustainability by leveraging tools such as strategic partnerships, training-of-trainers models, and thoughtfully designed studies with adequate initial implementation periods. Our ultimate goal is to render external supports unnecessary, empowering the target population to independently implement the focal interventions and train new providers within their own communities indefinitely.
Capacity Building
We aim to build capacity in the screening and treatment of mental health disorders on various levels: 1) increasing the capacity of large-scale, yet often underfunded, entities such as national governments and large NGOs by training staff in culturally-adapted evidence-based practices (EBPs); 2) integrating EBPs into existing health systems; 3) enhancing the capacity of vulnerable individuals by providing valuable training and sponsoring certification that can increase employability and earning capacity.
Bottom-Up Research Design
To empower the individuals and communities we aim to support, we aim to include the voices of individuals living and working in project locations, globally and locally. We take an iterative approach to study design, incorporating feedback from stakeholders across levels throughout the preliminary project phases, and continue to seek and include feedback throughout the duration of the project cycle, all the way to publication.
Reciprocal Innovation
mhSEVA prioritizes reciprocal innovation, centering bi-directional and iterative exchanges of ideas, knowledge, processes, methodologies, and technologies between groups, in order to address common challenges and provide mutual benefit. We aim to do this within a flattened hierarchy, where no stakeholder’s perspective, including our own, is valued over another.
No Health Without Mental Health
A central concept throughout the Global Mental Health field, championed by the WHO and endorsed by the Pan American Health Organization, EU Council of Ministers, World Federation of Mental Health and others (Prince et al., 2007), mhSEVA honors this proposition by prioritizing the integration of mental health interventions into primary care, addressing NCDs, promoting prevention, and supporting health policy reform.
Advancements in Global Mental Health Research Design, Method, and Assessment
We aim to partner with leaders across grassroots and governnce agencies (including, interntional non-profit agencies, faith-based orgnizations, academic institutions, ministries of health and policymakers) in order to integrate innovations from other fields into our mental health research projects.
