The proposal to integrate the mhGAP-GI in Guatemalan faculties of medicine arises after PAHO/WHO's invitation to attend the meeting: "mhGAP training implementation in Latin American universities," which was organized by the Department of Psychiatry of the Autonomous University of Madrid, in collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico and PAHO/WHO. Representatives of Guatemala's Mariano Gálvez University (UMG) participated in this event. Subsequently, and in collaboration with PAHO/WHO, meetings were held with the Psychiatric Association of Guatemala -APsG- and with psychiatry professors from different universities to analyze the feasibility of the strategy's implementation.
APsG took the lead in this initiative and invited the deans and representatives of the universities of San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), Francisco Marroquín (UFM), Rafael Landívar (URL), Mariano Gálvez (UMG) and Da Vinci (UDG) to propose the integration of the guide and encourage its adequate implementation in each faculty, as a basic and useful platform on mental health and psychiatry for all medical undergraduate students.Both, teachers and deans, approved the proposal.
Based on the right of the Guatemalan population to have easy access to comprehensive health services, the Psychiatric Association of Guatemala, the country's medical schools and the civil associations Enlaces and Funbide, are convinced that it will help reduce the existing gap in mental health treatment, if properly integrated, implemented and supervised.
The initiative was presented as an innovative strategy in education during the World Congress of Psychiatry held in Berlin on October 10.The country was represented by doctorsDiego Asturias Fernández from URL and member of the Board of Directors of APsG; Roxanna Ruiz Cabarrús, from UFM and APsG's President; Mirna Roxanna Santos, APsG's Secretary; and Lourdes María Trigueros López of Asociación Enlaces.Dr. Mayra Recinos Bekker, Funbide's Executive Director, and Dr. Edgar Vásquez Trujillo, professor at UMG, have also worked and supported this project.
