Addressing Perinatal Depression in Vietnam
Presented by Dr. Ian Bennett, MD, PhD
Dr. Ian M. Bennett, MD, PhD, is a Professor at the University of Washington (UW) with appointments in the departments of Family Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Global Health, as a member of the UW Center for Global Mental Health.
As a family physician he provides prenatal, pediatric and general adult clinical care, with a particular clinical expertise in common mental disorders (depression and anxiety). Additionally, as a researcher in mental health Ian has focused on how to deliver mental health services where the largest health workforce is primary care.
It is exciting for all of us associated with MEET and UW Global Health to learn that recently Ian received a two year grant R21 from the Fogarty Center of the US National Institute of Health (NIH) through a program called the Global Brains effort which supports research related to mental disorders in low and middle income countries. Ian is a physician scientist focused on maternal child health, he has research expertise in the area of perinatal mental health and risk of death by suicide. As a clinician and researcher he feels that these issues are central to the care of women and their families, and is often ignored by mainstream health care. Because low income and historically disadvantaged/exploited populations have higher risk of mental health disorders and death by suicide, it is also an area of disparities and social justice he is personally and professionally committed to addressing.
Dr. Bennett is partnering with our colleagues in Can Tho, Vietnam at the Can Tho University Medicine and Pharmacy (CTUMP). The CTUMP primary investigator of the grant is Pham Ti Tam, Dean of the School of Public Health, and former Vice Rector of CTUMP. She has a team of four faculty members in her school, and collaborations with the School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Nguyen Van Thong, MD lead investigator from the Psychiatry Department.
The title of the grant is “Developing a Tailored Implementation Plan for Collaborative Care of Perinatal Depression Care in Community Health Centers in Vietnam.” Perinatal depression and the associated risk of suicide are rarely identified or treated in low income countries. A major obstacle to achieving the benefits of evidence based models of care for perinatal depression is a focus on fidelity, which may reduce adaptation to local culture and context. The plan therefore over the next two years is to use a participatory approach to explore an intervention adaptation approach to develop a tailored treatment model and implementation strategy for perinatal depression in Can Tho, Vietnam. The participatory design approach developed from work of Paulo Freire who engaged in research in oppressed communities. Ian has stated “that this is the spirit underlying the current project focused on low income women receiving care in rural areas around Can Tho.
Can Tho is a federal provincial city that provides health services to a large region of the Mekong River Delta with over 19 million, mostly rural inhabitants. Can Tho Gynecology and Obstetrics Hospital (CTGOH) will be an important collaborator on this project with CTUMP and Dr. Bennett, along with his co-investigators Pamela Collins (head of the Center for Global Mental Health, Amritha Bhat, a perinatal Psychiatrist, and Diem Nguyen, a qualitative researcher.
This is the first NIH grant that involves a primary investigator at CTUMP, so is quite significant in that way, we are hoping it will be the first of many grants. Ian had initial support to develop this project from funding overseen by Dr. Richard Veith, former chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington and a long time member of MEET. We look forward to learning more from Ian and his team in the coming years, and support whole heartedly this effort to better the lives of women and families in Vietnam suffering from perinatal depression.
