Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Community Based System Dynamic As An Approach For Understanding And Acting On Messy Problems: A Case Study For Global Mental Health Intervention In Afghanistan, Jean-Francois Trani, Ellis Ballard, Parul Bakhshi, Peter Hovmand

Brown School Faculty Publications

Background: Afghanistan lacks suitable specialized mental healthcare services despite high prevalence of severe mental health disorders which are aggravated by the conflict and numerous daily stressors. Recent studies have shown that Afghans with mental illness are not only deprived of care but are vulnerable in many other ways. Innovative participatory approaches to the design of mental healthcare policies and programs are needed in such challenging context. Methods: We employed community based system dynamics to examine interactions between multiple factors and actors to examine the problem of persistently low service utilization for people with mental illness. Group model building sessions, designed …