Sangath

Achievements

Highlights of 2006-2008

CLINICAL & COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

Setting up six resource rooms in mainstream schools for children with learning disabilities.

Trained 130 anganwadi workers from the Ponda taluka in the use of Portage curriculum for inclusion of children with developmental disabilities.

Worked with teachers, parents and the counselor of Disha School to promote mental health of children with special needs.

Integrated care for depression and anxiety in 12 primary health care centres and offered treatment to over 2000 patients.

Trained 20 first line counsellors in the Goa Naval area for promotion of mental health of Navy Officers/sailors and their families.

Nominated by the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Goa, under the Domestic Violence Act to provide family counselling and psychiatric services.

Computerized aptitude testing facility for career guidance of young people set up at the Raia centre.

Support groups of parents of children with mental disability formed in South Goa.

Comprehensive outdoor mental health services provided in both centres.

Over 2000 young people covered through a community youth health promotion program in south Goa.

Mental health care integrated into a community care program for PLHIV covering over 300 PLHIV caregivers.

Program for integrated health and educational promotion in secondary schools launched in five rural schools.

PARTNERSHIPS

Extensive local collaborations with government departments (particularly health, education, women and child), schools and educational institutes, and other NGOs for Clinical & Research activities.

MOU with the Navy in October 2007 to provide clinical services.

Capacity building training programs for a wide range of stakeholders including teachers, community health researchers and mental health workers.

Recognized by National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Mental Retardation and Cerebral Palsy (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India) as a State Nodal Agency for persons with disabilities.

Nominated as the Mother NGO for South Goa under the Government of India’s Reproductive & Child Health program.

Appointed by Rehabilitation Council of India as a training centre for a three month training course on disability, creative teaching and emotional development of children, in collaboration with Bhoj University, Gujarat.

Completed successful collaboration with partners in four south Asian countries to map mental heath research capacity in South Asia.

Strong partnerships with international and national academic institutions, such as the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Assessment by the Paediatrician during Health Camp

Training for Field NGO's

Research

Completed amongst the largest population based cohort studies of adolescent health and women’s health in India.

Completed first phase of the largest randomized controlled trial aiming to improve the care of persons with depression in primary health care in India.

Completed the largest survey of alcohol use and its impact on health in Goa.

MacArthur Foundation International Prize for Creative and Effective Institutions.

Sangath was awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation International prize for Creative & Effective Institutions for 2008. Sangath is one of eight organizations in six countries to have received this prestigious award. The prize was given in recognition of Sangath’s contribution to community health and mental health.

Coordinator addressing a meeting in Pernem

Strong human and infrastructure resources for carrying out action oriented research established.

Recognition by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India.

Research cited in three recent Lancet series (child development, mental health, adolescent health).

Research findings influencing scaling up of models of care, for example through the National Mental Health Program.

Influenced research groups and health policy in India and many other countries for e.g. Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ethiopia and South Africa.

Over a dozen original research publications by Sangath service providers in leading international peer reviewed journals.

Our MC members with MacArthur Foundation heads a the awards ceremony on 12th June 2008 in Chicago,-USA.

Sangath plans to use the prize money (US$ 350,000) entirely to achieve one of its long-standing dreams: to build a centre for child development, mental health and public health research.