I have been an observer and traveller in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This time I wanted to contribute to a community by sharing my
skills and embracing culture through participation. This would not
only be a rewarding professional experience but an enriching
personal one.
Dr Clive Stanton, Volunteer, Pantang
Hospital, Ghana, 2009
Overview
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is
committed to supporting mental health care across the world,
particularly in countries that are known to suffer from an acute
shortage of psychiatrists or that have a skills gap that can have
consequences for both primary and specialist mental health
services.
The College’s volunteer scheme aims to
facilitate contact between hospitals, clinics, projects and
communities in need of psychiatric expertise and training, and
psychiatrists who are willing to offer their time and support.
The College has a database of over 120 of its
Members that have registered to be volunteers. These volunteers
have provided details of their skills and experiences which include
curriculum development, teaching, examining, mental health service
and legislation development, research training and mental health
integration into primary care. The database also contains details
of the languages they speak, their availability and any previous
experience they may have had as a volunteer.
As well as independently organised placements,
the College continues to work with organisations such as Challenges
Worldwide, THET and WHO to place volunteers across the globe.
Completed placements over the last year have included the
Department of Psychiatry in Ethiopia, a WHO Pacific Island Mental
Health Network placement in the Solomon Islands and a Challenges
Worldwide placement based at the Pantang Hospital in Ghana. You can
view of map of completed placments and read reports from volunteers
on the volunteers homepage.
Hosting a Volunteer
Institutions that are
interested in making use of a psychiatrist in the short or medium
are invited to submit an application detailing their requirements
and specifying the range of expertise they require. On
receipt of an application the College identifies suitable
volunteers whose skills, availability, language competence and
experience match the requirements. Once a volunteer has been chosen
the College offers assistance in making the pre-placement
arrangements with the volunteer, including mentoring and country
specific advice if necessary. The host institution identifies a
local mentor able to offer initial induction as well as regular
contact, assistance and advice to the volunteer throughout the
placement. A pre-placement meeting with the volunteer, the
mentor and the College co-ordinators is then arranged to discuss
details of the placement and to identify any practical arrangements
to be made. The College maintains regular contact with the
volunteer and the host institution to ensure that any problems that
might arise are resolved quickly and effectively.
Hosting a Trainee
Volunteer
College Volunteers are
often senior or recently retired psychiatrists but increasingly
senior psychiatric trainees are expressing an interest in becoming
a volunteer. The College believes that exposure to mental health
provision models influenced by cultural systems other than the UK
NHS, as well as innovative methods of service delivery that
inadequately resourced services bring about, are essential in
shaping UK mental health experts of the future.
The rationale and
practical arrangements for hosting a trainee volunteer remain
largely the same as those for senior consultants. One important
difference in this respect is supervision. A trainee placement
should offer an affiliation or formal attachment to a university
department, a hospital or the ministry of health. This is important
if any research or audit undertaken by the visiting trainee
requires ethical or other approval. It also ensures that relevant
organisations know about the trainee’s project so that it does not
interfere with other national programmes.
Volunteer trainees must have a local mentor –
usually either a Member or Fellow of the College, or an
individually approved senior psychiatrist. Wherever possible, the
College endeavours to place a consultant volunteer with the trainee
in the same area thus providing opportunities for mutual support,
supervision and mentoring for the trainee.
Becoming a
Volunteer
Members of the College
that are interested in registering as a College Volunteer are asked
to complete an application form detailing their skills and
experiences. They are also asked to provide an up to date CV and
details of two referees that are able to confirm their suitability
as a volunteer. On receipt of an application the College will write
to the referees and put the volunteer’s details on the College
database. The College will then contact the volunteer as and when a
suitable placement becomes available.
Senior trainees are
welcome to register as volunteers. Trainees in their penultimate or
final year of training are eligible, Trust approval permitting, for
an overseas placement approved towards their final specialist
qualification. Volunteer trainees are required to identify a
suitable mentor in the UK who has knowledge of the country of
placement and is (usually) an approved trainer in the UK. The
trainee is expected to meet their mentor before their departure and
on their return, and to maintain fortnightly email contact
throughout their placement. The UK programme director monitors
progress. Trainees are required to write a detailed report
about either an audit or research project or a clinical case study,
with supervision from the UK mentor.
All volunteers are asked
to provide a report on their placement on their return which will
be submitted to the International Advisory Committee and may appear
on the College’s Website.
Finances
Funding remains one of
the main difficulties both for consultant and trainee
volunteers. There are no major donors for this kind of work;
however, most of College volunteers are willing to fund most of
their own expenses. Thanks to fundraising efforts led by Professor
Sheila Hollins in 2008 the College is able to cover the cost of
travel to and from the placement.
The College provides the
administrative infrastructure for the programme and the host
institution may, in some cases, be able to provide some assistance,
e.g. basic accommodation, a local salary, local transport, etc.
Contact
For further details on
the College’s Volunteer Scheme or to request an application form
please contact Elen Cook the College’s International Liaison
Manager: ecook@rcpsych.ac.uk /
44(0)2072352351 ext. 6136