Our Vision

SEWW envisions a world in which people of all communities live with mental health and well-being and the joy of maintaining a sense of life’s possibilities.

Our Mission

SEWW seeks to connect innovators in community mobilization, advocacy, program design, research, and clinical service provision, who are committed to redressing the inequities of mental health resource distribution globally.

Board of Directors

Pamela Y. Collins, Founder and Director, is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Department of Psychiatry and the Mailman School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology. She completed her medical training at Cornell University Medical College and subsequently trained in psychiatry at Columbia University /New York State Psychiatric Institute. Pamela completed graduate work in public health and a National Institute of Mental Health post-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University. She studied cultural psychiatry and applied medical anthropology as a research fellow in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
Pamela is the director of the interdepartmental Global Health Track at the Mailman School of Public Health. Her work focuses on mental health and psychosocial aspects of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. Pamela and colleagues developed the HIV prevention curriculum, “Our Selves, Our Bodies, Our Realities” to help women reduce risky sexual encounters, thereby reducing their risk of HIV infection and “Shosholoza for Health” an HIV training intervention for South African mental health care providers”. Her work also examines the contribution of social stigma related to mental illness to women’s HIV risk. Pamela received an Echoing Green Foundation fellowship for social entrepreneurs in 1997.

R. Claire Henderson is a psychiatrist from the UK who has both membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Certification with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She completed her training in psychiatry in London, followed by a four year training fellowship in health services research at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. She moved to New York in 2003; In 2006 she became the Associate Director of Evaluation and Health Services Research at the Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center for the VA’s New York/New Jersey Region, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She also holds an adjunct research position in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, where she is the PI on a pilot study in collaboration with the Columbia Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies.

Cheryl Harris Sharman is a freelance journalist and community organizer. Her writing has appeared in The Lancet; The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) magazine, Perspectives in Health; The Miami Herald; The San Francisco Chronicle;, Central America’s The Tico Times; and a McGraw-Hill textbook on substance abuse. Ethnographic book projects include HER KIND, on women’s mental health in East Harlem; NIGHTSHIFT, on night shift labor in New York City; and ROUGH, on the social networks of NYC mentally ill homeless men. She is currently conducting research for the New York Services Study, an NIMH-funded qualitative study on homelessness and mental health led by Deborah K. Padgett. Memberships include: American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), American Sociological Association (ASA), and the Public Health Association of New York City (PHANYC).

History

The idea for SEWW was inspired by a dream to bring the tremendous and varied resources of the global community together for the promotion of mental health.  Early activities centered around addressing the social needs of women with mental illness in New York, training mental health care providers in South Africa on mental health and HIV, and training primary care doctors in Patagonia in mental health.  SEWW was incorporated in New York State in December, 2006. The organization has tax exempt status under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Why SEWW?

The mental health of individuals in developing countries settings and indigenous communities worldwide is a frequently neglected area of health care. Yet, significant morbidity and mortality are associated with mental illness. The World Development Report of 1993 demonstrated that mental illnesses cause a greater burden of disease and disability than tuberculosis, cancer or heart disease throughout the world. Often the needs of individuals suffering from mental illness are met poorly, if at all, in resource-poor settings. In these environments one trained mental health professional may have the responsibility of managing clinical care for hundreds of individuals, collecting epidemiologic data, conducting research, and communicating the results with the wider community, as well as training new providers. Mental health-focused non-governmental organizations (NGOs) often help fill the gap, but great need persists. As a result, individuals in need receive limited care, professionals are over-burdened, and development and implementation of new ideas occurs slowly. In some cases innovative approaches to care uniquely suited to these settings are never disseminated to others who could benefit.

Mental health workers in these settings often lament the lack of 1) information about mental health issues in their populations, 2) research data to guide development of relevant and feasible treatment/prevention approaches, 3) evidence-based solutions to mental health problems that are not imported from Northern countries, and 4) opportunities to join in the discussion of these issues with their regional and international colleagues.

We invite you to use this site to share your field experiences, learn about funding and fellowship training opportunities, communicate research findings, get advice on publication, share your wealth of knowledge by mentoring, or map your career path by working with a mentor.

How to Use This Site

This site is designed to offer you access to funding, training, and human resources in global mental health. The e-mentoring program allows individuals and organizations to link with people who share their interests and can help guide them to success in implementing programs, obtaining funding, navigating a career, etc. SEWW also enables members to contact mental health organizations around the world in order to establish collaborations or gain experience in global mental health through volunteer or training opportunities.
Membership is free. Simply follow these instructions:
1. Return to the home page.
2. Click on Register.
3. Complete and submit the registration form.
4. You’re registered!
Once you are registered you can access the funding and member resources.
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