Mentoring Network for Global Mental Health Research on Social Drivers Of Mental Illnesses across the Lifespan (gmhCONNECT)

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The NIMH 2020 Strategic Plan identifies Global Mental Health as a cross-cutting research theme integral to the institute’s goals. Within global mental health, there is growing recognition of the gaps in understanding how to intervene on social drivers to substantially reduce the global burden of disease attributable to mental illnesses. This R25 application proposes a research education program on social driver interventions in global mental health. The program, Global Mental Health Research on SoCial Drivers Of MeNtal IllNessEs aCross The Lifespan (gmhCONNECT), is based at the University of Illinois at Chicago and George Washington University with a large U.S. and international faculty of senior global mental health researchers. The mentorship network also includes the people living with mental illness from the Global Mental Health Peer Network. Mentees will also engage with practitioners from the WHO, UNICEF, UNHCR, and major humanitarian organizations. In keeping with the requirements of PAR-20-080, this program targets graduate and health professional students, medical residents, postdoctoral trainees, and early-career faculty who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are planning to submit or currently funded through NRSAs, K awards, Fogarty Fellowships, or project grant. Building a career in global mental health research involves mastering complex challenges including working with: the legacies of colonialism, power differentials, local culture, agencies and officials, international and local NGOs, and non-specialist and peer providers. The purpose of this program is to facilitate their success as independent researchers and members of the research community in global mental health. Our program highlights intervention research concerning how social drivers impact mental illness, prevention, and care for populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and other low-resource settings. The specific aims are: Aim 1: Provide training, primarily through a Summer Institute, which advances the trainees’ research knowledge and skills on the ways in which social drivers impact mental illness, prevention, and care and how social drivers and their impact can be addressed through interventions; Aim 2: Provide one-year of focused intensive mentorship (dyadic and triadic) from a US and LMIC pool of multidisciplinary and diverse GMH experts to support the mentees’ research interests and career trajectories. Aim 3: Provide a range of synergistic guided learning opportunities including group mentorship, structured peer mentorship, and engagements with people living with mental illness and practitioners at implementing organizations, which will enable trainees to form their unique mentoring networks; Aim 4: Evaluate the impact of gmhCONNECT on the mentee’s networks, knowledge and productivity, with an emphasis on equity and collaboration when evaluating productivity metrics. Successful implementation of these aims will provide promising early-career scientists with more support for their research, an increased success rate, accelerated time for acquiring NIH funding, and generate more equitable and scientifically-rigorous collaborative global mental health research.