Project Description
This project is made possible through a Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund (#CDAF) Rapid Response Grant, in support of community resilience and engagement in direct response to the coronavirus. The Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and implemented by Partners of the Americas, in partnership with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Our project, which we have named Global Family Systems & Psychosocial Resilience, speaks to both of our different sets of MHPSS professional experiences across various parts of the globe. This particular project is designed to address the ongoing challenge of training and supporting mental health professionals to work effectively and sustainably with families on issues of psychosocial resilience. This type of training support is costly and inaccessible to many in low- and middle- income countries and is particularly needed during a public health emergency. To meet this challenge, we are developing virtual, open-access, professional content specific to global family systems approaches and psychosocial resilience during Covid19. We will explore, with colleagues across the globe, the public mental health interventions used to reduce risk and promote family and community well-being during the pandemic.
In this project, we focus on the role of family and community mental health and psychosocial support and resilience in both stable and unstable environments, complex situations including ongoing and historical armed conflict, low-resource settings, and high income countries—each having to meet unique challenges to support families and community during this public health emergency.