The 2023-24 Global Mental Health Speakers series is a collaboration between the UW Consortium for Global Mental Health and the Population Health Initiative. Each event is followed by a 30 minute informal reception to build community and connection among the people gathered. The series brings together thought leaders from across UW, joined by some local and international experts to present and discuss topics of central or emerging concern in global mental health.   

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences recently launched a new service to help prescribing providers in Washington — including providers in the UW Medicine Accountable Care Network — receive clinical advice regarding adult patients (18+) with mental health and/or substance use disorders.

Jennifer Velloza spent a year crisscrossing the grass-covered plains and sloping hills of rural Swaziland, dividing her time among ten medical clinics in this small southern African country. Here, nearly one in four people have HIV — and that rate is even higher among women.

As a study manager for Doctors Without Borders, Velloza saw many pregnant and postpartum women struggle to get the HIV testing and treatment they needed, because they were also suffering from sexual trauma, depression or anxiety.

The Guardian

Every country in the world is facing and failing to tackle a mental health crisis, from epidemics of anxiety and depression to conditions caused by violence and trauma, according to a review by experts that estimates the rising cost will hit $16tn (£12tn) by 2030.

A team of 28 global experts* assembled by the Lancet medical journal says there is a “collective failure to respond to this global health crisis” which “results in monumental loss of human capabilities and avoidable suffering.”