Mental Health Services
In cooperation
with the Department of Psychiatry at Moi University School of
Medicine and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospitals, AMPATH holds a
special clinic weekly to meet the mental health needs of
patients. Patients can be referred from any site for
evaluation and treatment. A mental health nurse provides
onsite counseling one day per week at rural clinics at Mosoriot,
Burt Forest, and Turbo. Currently, four sites, including
Turbo, Weburge, Teso and Amukura are being evaluated for an
increase in mental health services. The weekly clinics and
onsite counseling provide treatment to patients with a variety of
disorders, including depression, psychosis, and substance
abuse. The generous support of donations of Prozac and
Olanzapine from Eli Lilly has dramatically improved the treatment
for our patients.
Through the years, the AMPATH Consortium institutions and Moi University have shared faculty, residents and students from various disciplines to provide care for the people of western Kenya. In collaboration with the senior AMPATH leadership and AMPATH consortium institutions, the AMPATH North American Mental Health Working Group (NAMHWG) was formed in 2010. The NAMHWG has a tripartite mission of care delivery, research, and training. The consortium institutions that are actively involved include Indiana University, Brown University, Duke University, University of Utah, and University of Toronto. Martin Keller, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University is the program director. Dr. Keller and other mental health professionals in the NAMHWG have been actively collaborating with Drs. Gakinya (chair of the department of psychiatry) and Atwoli, and other members of the Department of Psychiatry at Moi University School of Medicine as they develop the first Residency Training Program in the Moi Department of Psychiatry. This historic program was approved by the Moi University Senate August 2011. The goal is to accept students for the first class to begin in January 2012.
Essential to the success of the tripartite mission of the NAMHWG, are the monthly rotations of faculty and psychiatry residents from the North American AMPATH departments of psychiatry in the Moi Medical School department of psychiatry and the presence of a psychiatry faculty member from a participating academic institution to live in Eldoret for an extended period of time, providing leadership in support of the interests of Moi University Department of Psychiatry and the mission of the AMPATH Consortium. Discussions are underway with the participating academic institutions in order to reach this goal within the next year.