This video gathers testimonies of users as well as interviews with different actors that participated in the "Care of severe mental health disorders in El Tambo, Cauca" project. It was developed by PAHO/WHO Colombia, December 2017, to give visibility to the results of this care and rehabilitation model and to accompany the document that systematizes the project since its origin in 2013.
Given the importance of its achievements in improving the life quality of patients with severe mental disorders and their caregivers, the systematization process was carried out in 2017. This allowed to compile dispersed documentation on community-based care processes, present the psychosocial context of the municipality, enrich the information process with primary and secondary sources, and prepare a document to be published that includes the background, context, objectives, methodology, care and rehabilitation achievements, as well as barriers and recommendations for scaling up the project and making it sustainable in the country's health system.
The following were identified as the main recommendations to make the program sustainable: a) to maintain the political will for implementing programs that favor mental health care of people with mental disorders; b) to achieve a greater project insertion in the hospital's administrative structure and the Health Secretariat; c) to give greater traceability to the processes, with monitoring and evaluation systems; d) to strengthen the project´s territorial focus; e) to achieve greater comprehensiveness of all health actions carried out in the territory by always including family members, caregivers and the community; f) to keep developing local capacities in detection, identification, treatment and case follow-up through continuous training processes and permanent linkage of caregivers and community leaders to training processes.
