Health Program Reviews 2024

Mental Health Program

Monday, April 15, 2024

Under the leadership of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, a longtime champion for the rights of people with mental illnesses, we envision a world where mental health is valued, promoted and protected as a human right and where everyone has equal access to mental health supports and services.  

Our Goals

The Carter Center's Mental Health Program works to:

1) Promote awareness about mental health issues to reduce stigma and discrimination against those with mental illnesses, 

2) Inform public policy with a focus on achieving equity for mental health care comparable to other health care, and  

3) Assist countries in building their behavioral health system of care. 

Global Behavioral Health. 

The Carter Center partners with governments and other allies to strengthen public mental health policy and care globally.

Over more than a decade in Liberia, the Carter Center has helped strengthen the mental health workforce, assist the ministry of health in implementing national policies, built capacity of civil society organizations, and empowered mental health service users and family caregivers. The Mental Health Program launched the first advanced practice psychiatric nursing program in Liberia to enhance training for mental health clinicians and increase the sustainability of the country’s workforce development efforts. Learning from these experiences, the Program is adapting and applying lessons learned from Liberia to other low- and middle-income countries where mental health systems strengthening is an expressed priority. Taking innovative approaches to strengthening health systems, The Carter Center is integrating mental health with other programmatic areas such as neglected tropical disease case and tuberculosis case management.

Similarly, the Mental Health and Conflict Resolution Programs are collaborating to implement a project in Mali that aims to foster resilience among communities impacted by conflict and trauma.

Results & Impact

• Over 362 Psychiatric/ Mental Health Advanced Practice Providers trained in Liberia; 140 specialize in treating children and adolescents; 8 School-based Behavioral Health clinics established
• Assisted Liberia in writing its first National Behavior Health Plan, pass its first Mental Health Law and complete its first Mental Health Financing Assessment
• Established the first advanced practice psychiatric nursing master’s program in West Africa
• Established the first community of practice for psychiatric mental health nursing in Africa through Project ECHO
• Provide leadership in integrating mental health in emergency preparedness and response during the 2014-2016 EVD Outbreak and the COVID19 Pandemic

 (Photo: Ashoka Mukpo)