BHP volunteers have been assisting Sajida Foundation staff with planning for the country’s first private psychiatric hospital. Publicly-funded mental health services in Bangladesh are extremely sparse with only about 700 psychiatric beds in government-run hospitals to serve a population of 170 million. Moreover, there are only 0.16 psychiatrists, 0.34 psychologists, and 0.4 psychiatric nurses per 100,000 people in Bangladesh far below the WHO recommended ratio of ten psychiatrists per 100,000 people.
The Hub, Sajida's neuropsychiatric hospital, will provide multidisciplinary care to patients with serious mental illness as well as disabling neurological conditions. The aim is to empower individuals to participate in everyday activities, improve their overall function, and enhance their quality of life with psychiatric, psychological and therapeutic services. A home care program will provide follow-up and support as part of Sajida’s continuum of mental health services, which also includes training, tele-mental health, out-patient adult and child services and longer-term residential programs.
Canada-based BHP volunteers have assisted the Sajida team by recommending training materials, researching operating protocols and care planning tools, and reviewing safety features of the newly-built hospital. We will continue to provide long-distance support for staff training and program development. We are also now recruiting volunteers with current experience as psychiatric care providers for on-site staff support and professional development of HUB staff. For more information, please contact us at BangladeshHealthProject@proton.me
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