Enhancing mental health research capacity: emerging voices from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) global hubs

Abstract

Background Emerging researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) face many barriers, including inadequacies in funding, international exposure and mentorship. In 2012, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) funded five research hubs aimed at improving the research core for evidence-based mental health interventions, enhancing research skills in global mental health, and providing capacity building (CB) opportunities for early career investigators in LMIC. In this paper emerging researchers contextualize their experiences. Case presentation Each of the five hubs purposively selected an emerging researcher who had experienced more than one hub-related CB opportunity and actively participated in hub-related clinical trial activities. The five ‘voices’ were invited to contribute narratives on their professional backgrounds, CB experience, challenges and successes as an emerging mental health researcher, and suggestions for future CB activities. These narratives are presented as case studies. CB activities provided broader learning opportunities for emerging researchers. Benefits included the receipt of research funding, hands-on training and mentorship, as well as exposure to networks and collaborative opportunities on a global scale. To overcome ongoing challenges of access to funding, mentoring, networking and global exposure, the emerging voices recommend making mentorship and training opportunities available to a wider range of emerging mental health researchers. Conclusions Investing in CB is not enough to ensure sustainability and leave a legacy unless it is accompanied by ongoing mentorship and international exposure. Financial investment in building research capacity, promotion of mentorship and supervision, and international networking are essential to yield well-prepared young investigators in LMIC as experienced by these rising stars. Governments and policymakers should prioritize educational policies to support the continuous development and international engagement of emerging researchers. This can advance strategies to deal with one of most important and costly problems faced by healthcare systems in LMIC: the mental health treatment gap.

“We need more big trees as well as the grass roots”: going beyond research capacity building to develop sustainable careers in mental health research in African countries

“…While there are selected examples of research excellence and successful African researchers, these academics were the exceptions, and respondents did not indicate that they knew how to replicate such trajectories. More often, both fellows and senior researchers noted the lack of senior mental health researchers to provide mentorship, for fellows and faculty alike, a finding consistent with prior studies [19]. Senior researchers in LMICs faced the burden of training clinicians and researchers, conducting their own research, and, often, fulfilling clinical duties, all without the administrative support provided to HIC clinician-researchers [18,29].…”

“…These programs have worked to build the clinical and research capacity of medical school departments, including a psychiatry department in Zimbabwe [ 13 – 15 ]; provided small grants, external supervision and mentorship for LMIC PhD students within ongoing trials and projects [ 4 , 16 , 17 ]; and supported post-graduate programmes in African countries: for example, the MPhil in Public Mental at the University of Cape Town and PhD programme in mental health epidemiology at Addis Ababa University. Other linked research programmes have included a strong capacity building component, for example the Africa Focus on Intervention Research for Mental health (AFFIRM) [ 16 , 18 , 19 ], Emerging Mental health systems in low and middle-income countries (EMERALD) [ 4 ], Partnership for Mental health Development in sub-Saharan Africa (PaM-D) [ 20 ] and the Programme for Improving Mental health carE (PRIME) [ 17 ]. Most recently, the African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI) has, as its primary focus, the support of postgraduate researchers in four African countries: Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa, and Zimbabwe [ 21 ].…”

The Arab Region's Contribution to Global Mental Health Research (2009–2018): A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Technical support in the form of advanced research training, and copyediting in English, can also improve the chances of producing studies of publishable quality. Although the process may be more complex than stated, we hope that Arab mental health researchers would build on such initiatives to further develop their research portfolios in a way that is impactful locally, regionally, and internationally (25)(26)(27)(28). As the region's population continues to face increasing trauma as a result of war and terrorism, among others, the field is afforded an opportunity to establish a major standing in the healthcare domain.…”

'We need more big trees as well as the grass roots’: Going beyond research capacity building to develop sustainable careers in mental health research in African countries

“…While there are selected examples of research excellence and successful African researchers, these academics were the exceptions, and respondents did not indicate that they knew how to replicate such trajectories. More often, both fellows and senior researchers noted the lack of senior mental health researchers to provide mentorship, for fellows and faculty alike, a nding consistent with prior studies [19]. Senior researchers in LMICs faced the burden of training clinicians and researchers, conducting their own research, and, often, ful lling clinical duties, all without the administrative support provided to HIC clinician-researchers [18,28].…”