more-in Boston University has joined hands with the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to build capacity for evidence-based mental health research to inform the development of sustainable health systems level changes. According to Willis G. Wang, vice-president and associate provost and deputy general counsel for Global programmes, Boston University, a grant of $30,000 was awarded for this tripartite collaboration, which aims to promote institutional exchanges to participate in research and teaching activities, exchange trainees for experiential learning, study or research, organise conferences and academic meetings related to combined research interests and issues, collaborate on joint research projects and share information and lessons learned pertaining to capacity building, student development and teaching. “This collaboration will work towards creation of approaches and models of care to tackle issues of mental health, homelessness and mental ill health among low resourced communities and work on collaboratively scaling these approaches by pushing for uptake of these interventions by government agencies,” says Mr. Wang. “The research focusses on understanding the experience of severe mental health issues and seeks to unpack the precipitating and perpetuating factors for distress, while taking into account multiple clinical, economic and social phenomena including, but not limited to, poverty, gender and class and caste-based discrimination. This can help to create more appropriate mental health and social support systems,” says Vandana Gopikumar - professor, School of Social Work, TISS. Director of The Banyan K.V. Kishore Kumar said the institution was optimistic about the tie-up.

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