Dear Friends, Imagine this: Attempting to provide lifesaving, and life-changing care as a single psychiatrist—to everybody living in Salt Lake City, Utah.
That’s the reality for half the world. There is, on average, one psychiatrist for every 200,000 people.
However, that injustice is slowly changing. PIH is helping thousands of patients around the world through innovative mental health programs—proving that high-quality mental health care can and should be available to all people, no matter where they live.
Donate now to help and your gift will be DOUBLED >>
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How we’re closing the mental health care gap right now |
It works. With proper care and treatment, people who were left to the streets by families facing poverty or chained to a bed for years by caregivers with no resources to help, have rejoined their families and their communities.
Take Jessica’s story for example. Since she was 17 years old, Jessica has lived with schizophrenia in Comas, an impoverished district in Lima, Peru. She used to run away from home, and her mother, desperate to keep Jessica safe, found a way to keep her there: a chain around her waist. It wasn’t a punishment. It was a last resort. |
Socios En Salud, as PIH is known in Peru, has cared for patients with schizophrenia for years through its community health program, including 23 community health workers specializing in schizophrenia care and “safe houses” that can provide 24/7 care. With support from Socios Ed Salud, Jessica restarted her medication and scheduled check-ups at the health center in Wiñay. She also received a COVID-19 vaccine.
Week by week, her condition improved. The voices and hallucinations subsided. She was no longer trying to run away or harm herself. The team noticed changes in her appearance, too. Her face and hair were washed. Her clothes were clean. And in late December, for the first time in years, the chain came off. |
How you can provide double the mental health care
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