Pakistan Leading on Global Health Research

BY: OUR STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning (PILL), University of Manchester (UoM) and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust held an opening ceremony, planning meeting and full capacity building program of National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded Burn rehabilitation program for management, treatment, and prevention of burns injuries in Pakistan.

This was as a part of the 6th Global Mental Health Research Capacity and Capability Programme, held in Dubai, UAE between 20^th November to 2^nd December 2022 focusing on unintentional injuries. A number of health professionals, academics, policy makers, young researchers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Nigeria, the UK, Canada and a representative from National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) participated in the programme.

At the inaugural meeting the lead investigators of the NIHR Burns Rehabilitation Programme Prof Nasim Chaudhry from PILL, Dr. Maria Panagioti and Prof Nusrat from UoM led the full programme and informed the audience about the physical and psychological burden of burn injuries (every 9 out of 10 burn injuries occur in low-income countries such as Pakistan. The official announcement of project start was made to develop culturally adapted multidisciplinary program to reduce burden of Burn injuries. The programme will be first of its kind in Pakistan for establishing evidence and improving quality of life of burn patients.

Co-Applicant, Prof Zia H Haq, Vice Chancellor, Khyber Medical University stressed upon the importance of continuous development of robust research strengthen not only Pakistan, UK and Canada collaboration but also strengthening wider South to South collaboration with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Nigeria and Argentina. The Vice Chancellor highlighted importance of involving policy makers in research and his engagement with policy makers in KPK province in Pakistan and Kabul, Afghanistan. Considering the importance of bi-literal and multi-level learning there was a consensus that such capacity building programs should be continued and extended in other countries across the Globe.

Speaking on the occasion Director General Health Sindh, Dr. Juman Bohoto appreciated the PILL team in supporting the local health departments to establish evidence base around unintentional injuries particularly for Burns. He further added his views around the importance of involving policy makers in research to take the work forward towards policy and implementation and extended his full support to the group. Dr. Juman highly appreciated the work of PILL  and Global Mental Health research group in improving health and wellbeing of people with mental health difficulties particularly around unintentional injuries, intentional injuries (Self-harm and suicide prevention) (CMAP MR/N006062/1, YCMAP, MR / R022461/1 and SEPAK), parenting interventions, Learning Through Pay Plus (R-TTS-2106-39652), Psychosis and Bipolar Disorder (CIHR-460586), Stillbirth and early neonatal deaths (NIHR UNIT)  and assured his full support to improve the mental health services and promote research using the life course approach.  

Prof Nusrat Husain from University of Manchester and Mersey Care NHS Foundation trust assured the group about the extended support from Prof Nigel Hooper, Vice President for Research at the University of Manchester, and Prof Joe Rafferty, CEO Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. The programme ended with a number of capacity building workshops around clinical outcome measure scales, Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry, theory of change risk and impact assessment, community engagement and involvement, burden of burn injuries in other LAMIC countries (Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan and Nigeria), gran-writing retreat and systematic review and meta-analysis.