Support for innovative psychiatric care

Professional development across 12 time zones!

Continuing many years’ collaboration with Sajida Foundation health programs, BHP volunteers have recently been supporting development of The Neuroscience & Psychiatry Hub, a modern psychiatric hospital in Dhaka. Since late 2024, BHP Director Alex Berland and Canadians Ann Greene and Tom Grauman have provided training on patient-centred mental health care for the hospital’s nurses and physicians. Ann has led live, twice-weekly case reviews on-line, guiding staff through patient assessment and care planning. Tom recently returned from a six-week site visit where he coached staff in therapeutic communication and non-violent crisis intervention and also developed job descriptions and care protocols.

At the first ever Hearing Voices workshop in Bangladesh

While in Dhaka during May, Tom also provided a workshop based on the “Hearing Voices” curriculum, which helps care providers understand the challenges encountered by individuals experiencing auditory hallucinations. One of the psychiatrists attending said afterwards, “We deal with a lot of patients who hear voices. But this training has made me truly appreciate their experience and also empathize with their difficulties in their day to day.” Another participant stated, “This was a profound reminder of the power of listening without judgment. It challenged clinical conventions and opened our eyes to the value of lived experience in shaping compassionate, person-centred mental health care.”

News from OfP

Bluebell School is experiencing growing pains. Total student enrolment is now 109 with 16 new students joining last year. As the student numbers increase, the teachers have recommended changes to make the building more functional. One extra-large room has now been divided into two classrooms. The outdoor toilet was also recently rebuilt at the request of the teachers. It had previously been repaired several times but with increased demand needed a new design. 

Outdoor toilet under construction at Bluebell School

Textbook distribution is always an exciting event at Bluebell School. Books are published and freely supplied by the government through the Upazila Education Office. As a registered school, Bluebell makes the necessary arrangements to secure enough books for all the students. BHP pays for many other books and learning materials supplied to students by OfP.

Students from OfP Institute of Science and Technology participated in area-wide sports programs, competing against students from other post-secondary institutes. The OIST team did well all the way to the semi-finals but did not win in the final round of competition.

Evidence-based reforms in nursing

In a recent paper, A call for evidence-based reforms in nursing in Bangladesh, Akter and colleagues recommended several ways to strengthen the contributions of nurses. For example, pathways to enable nurses to become Nurse Practitioners could improve health-care access in rural settings. They also recommend recruiting more individuals with nursing education background to key administrative positions across clinical environments and in the Ministry of Health. They conclude, “An evidence-based reform that involves nurses in all professional decision-making processes around healthcare would result in a supportive environment that empowers nurses in Bangladesh, ultimately yielding better quality patient care.”