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The Latest Publications from the Centre for IMPACT

  • Khattak MI, Rehman K, Afaq S, Butt SS, Ghutai G, et al. Engaging communities through participatory learning action for the control and prevention of diabetes: A protocol for the Process Evaluation of the EMPOWER-D trial in Pakistan and Afghanistan. PLoS One. 2026;21(5):e0345231. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0345231
  • Tahir A, Sanauddin N, Imtiaz S, et al. Application of the ADAPT Framework to Contextualize a Participatory Learning and Action Community Intervention for the Prevention and Control of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Urban and Rural Settings in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Protocol for Intervention Adaptation. JMIR Res Protoc. 2026;15:e71602. doi: 10.2196/71602

→ see a summary here: Protocol for Intervention Adaptation

  • Faisal MR, Bhatti MM, Walker S, et al. Strengthening Primary Care for Recognising and Treating Depression (SPiRiT-D): a study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled effectiveness-implementation trial of collaborative care for depression. Trials. 2026;27:164. doi: 10.1186/s13063-026-09453-5

→ see a summary here: SPiRiT-D protocol

All Centre for IMPACT outputs and publications

All Publications from the Centre for IMPACT

Publications from the Centre for IMPACT research teams:

Research Articles

  • Imtiaz S, Khaleeq N, Sanauddin N, Afaq S, Jennings HM, Tahir A, et al. Community Health Participatory interventions in the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases including mental health in crisis-affected Low-and Middle-Income Countries – a scoping review. Glob Health Action. 2026;19(1). doi: 10.1080/16549716.2025.2599011
  • Tafesse W, Hussain A, Suhrcke M. Women’s age at marriage and obesity in Pakistan. Econ Hum Biol. 2025. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2025.101525
  • Chivardi C, Samad Z, Chen T, Walker SM. Evaluating the long-term cost-effectiveness of the COBRA-BPS programme in Pakistan. BMJ Public Health. 2025;3:e002981. doi: 10.1136/bmjph-2025-002981
  • Afaq S, Chandrasenage D, Ashfaq U, et al. Consumption of commercial and traditional sugar-sweetened beverages among adolescents in Pakistan: evidence from a national survey. Front Nutr. 2025;12:1679917. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1679917

Systematic Reviews

  • Faisal MR, Salam FT, Vidyasagaran AL, Carswell C, Naseri MW, Shinwari Z, Fulbright H, Zavala GA, Gilbody S, Siddiqi N. Collaborative care for common mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Affect Disord. 2024 Jul 20;363:595-608.  doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.07.086.

Study Protocols

  • Khattak MI, Rehman K, Afaq S, Butt SS, Ghutai G, et al. Engaging communities through participatory learning action for the control and prevention of diabetes: A protocol for the Process Evaluation of the EMPOWER-D trial in Pakistan and Afghanistan. PLoS One. 2026;21(5):e0345231. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0345231
  • Tahir A, Sanauddin N, Imtiaz S, et al. Application of the ADAPT Framework to Contextualize a Participatory Learning and Action Community Intervention for the Prevention and Control of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Urban and Rural Settings in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Protocol for Intervention Adaptation. JMIR Res Protoc. 2026;15:e71602. doi: 10.2196/71602
  • Faisal MR, Bhatti MM, Walker S, et al. Strengthening Primary Care for Recognising and Treating Depression (SPiRiT-D): a study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled effectiveness-implementation trial of collaborative care for depression. Trials. 2026;27:164. doi: 10.1186/s13063-026-09453-5
  • Imtiaz S, Zafar R, Tahir A, et al. Engagement of coMmunity through Participatory learning and action for cOntrol and preVEntion of Type 2 Diabetes and its Risk factors (EMPOWER-D): protocol for a feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial in urban Pakistan. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2026. doi: 10.1186/s40814-025-01762-x
  • Naeem I, Almas A, Sheikh A, et al. Multicomponent intervention for controlling hypertension in the adult rural population of Pakistan: a protocol for a hybrid type III implementation-effectiveness cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2025;15(6):e100365. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-100365
  • Rehman K, Tahir A, Imtiaz S, et al. Engagement of coMmunity through Participatory learning and action for cOntrol and preVEntion of type II Diabetes and its Risk factors (EMPOWER-D) – A Protocol for a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial. BMC Public Health. 2025;25:3492. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-24371-y
  • Zavala GA, Asim M, Ayub A, et al. PROTOCOL: Effectiveness of Interventions for the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity in Children and Adolescents From Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Campbell Syst Rev. 2025;21:e70081. doi: 10.1002/cl2.70081

 

Other Outputs and Resources from the Centre

View the infographic for: → Women’s age at marriage and obesity in Pakistan ←

Blog post: Bringing mental health care to where people need it the most

Partnership with HealthNet TPO: a Centre for IMPACT case study

Check out these recent articles from some of our team members:

 

As part of our Training and Capacity Strengthening theme, we have been holding blog-writing workshops in conjunction with The Mental Elf. You can see some of the published results of these below:

Tuberculosis and depression: multimorbidities are a global health challenge

Psychotherapy presents hope for people in South Asia with depression and a non-communicable disease

January 11th 2024 saw the annual YorkTalks event at the University of York. Centre member Wiktoria Tafesse spoke about how building on long-term research partnerships in countries such as Malawi and Pakistan is combating the negative health impacts of both poverty and growing affluence, such as the explosion in obesity.

Professor Helen Elsey from The University of York explains how the Centre’s research will influence policy & practice.

Below we share selected outputs and resources from the original IMPACT Programme, the DiaDeM Programme, the IMPASS Study and the TBMM network. These outputs vary from academic publications, training and capacity building outputs, to communication activities:

IMPACT Programme 2018-2022

Videos

Watch the latest video outputs on our YouTube Channel

Celebrating Women in Science

In 2021, to mark the International Women’s Day and International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the NIHR Global Health Research Group ASTRA based at the University of York made a video to pay tribute to some of the many brilliant women involved in the project. The video highlights their journey creating an uplifting message for all the aspiring women in research.

Behavioural Activation Videos

These videos display how Behavioural Activation can be used to treat mild/moderate depression within existing non-communicable disease clinics across South Asia. The videos were made by Dr Rayeesa Zainab and Dr Sukanya Rajan and the IMPACT team at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India.

Integrating Depression Care into Chronic Communicable Disease (CCD) Services in South Asia

This animation displays the barriers and suggested ways forward to integrating depression screening and care into tuberculosis services in South Asia and is made by Dr Zara Nisar, Dr Saima Afaq and the IMPACT team at Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, Pakistan

Dr Saima Afaq is interviewed on World TB Day, Pakistan 2022. Saima describes the IMPACT Programme and one of the studies which focuses on integrating depression screening and brief therapy into TB services across Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

The video below (recorded in Urdu) was a part of the IMPACT Programme’s CCD Study also known as Depression in Chronic Communicable Diseases. The team made this video for the clinical staff working in the facility of chronic hepatitis services to help them screen depression among patients with chronic hepatitis B and/or C.
This video was shared among 2 of the medical units and a specialized hepatitis care facility called Centre for Liver & Digestive Diseases of Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan. Approximately 90 people (doctors, nurses and house physicians) used this video as a reference to screen for depression in their routine healthcare practice.

This video is a collection of interviews that reflect on the importance of the IMPACT-CCD hepatitis study. The video was made by the research team in Pakistan and includes the reflections of key stakeholders in the project.

Academic publications

Ul Haq B, Aslam F, Mazumdar P, Reddy S, Sarfraz M, Murthy NS, Jackson C. Feasibility of remote delivery of a smoking cessation intervention for people with severe mental illness: a
telephone consultation. Global Health Research 2024.
Link to the article here

Afaq S, Ayub A, Faisal MR, Nisar Z, Zala, Rehman AU, Ahmed A, Todowede O, Siddiqi N. Depression care integration in tuberculosis services: A feasibility assessment in Pakistan. Health Expectations 2024 27(1):e13985.
Link to the article here

Appuhamy KK, Podmore D, Mitchell A, et al. Risk factors associated with overweight and obesity in people with severe mental illness in South Asia: cross-sectional study in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Journal of Nutritional Science. 2023;12:e116.
Link to the article here

Todowede O, Afaq S, Adhikary A, Kanan S, Shree V, Jennings HM, Faisal MR, Nisar Z, Khan I, Desai G, Huque R, Siddiqi N. Barriers and facilitators to integrating depression care in tuberculosis services in South Asia: a multi-country qualitative study. BMC Health Serv Res. 2023 23(1):818.
Link to the article here

Zainab R, Kandasamy A, Bhat NA, Dsouza CV, Jennings H, Jackson C, Mazumdar P, Hewitt CE, Ekers D, Narayanan G, Rao GN, Coales K, Muliyala KP, Chaturvedi SK, Murthy P, Siddiqi N
Behavioral Activation for Comorbid Depression in People With Noncommunicable Disease in India: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial. JMIR Research Protocols 2023 12:e41127.
Link to the article here

Jarde A, Romano E, Afaq S, Elsony A, Lin Y, Huque R, Elsey H, Siddiqi K, Stubbs B, Siddiqi N. Prevalence and risks of tuberculosis multimorbidity in low-income and middle-income countries: a meta-review. BMJ Open 2022 12.
Link to the article here

Zavala GA, Todowede O, Mazumdar P, Aslam F, Choudhury AH, Jarde A, Khalid H, Reddy S, Gilbody S, Siddiqi N. Effectiveness of interventions to address obesity and health risk behaviours among people with severe mental illness in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): a systematic review and meta analysis. Global Mental Health 2022 9:264–273.
Link to the article here

Muliyala, K.P., Thirthalli, J. Services to Address Tobacco Use Should be Integral Part of Rehabilitation of Persons with Severe Mental Illnesses. J. Psychosoc. Rehabil. Ment. Health 2022 9: 127–130.
Link to the article here

Boehnke JR, Rana RZ, Kirkham JJ, Rose L, Agarwal G, Barbui C, Chase-Vilchez A, Churchill R, Flores-Flores O, Hurst JR, Levitt N, van Olmen J, Purgato M, Siddiqi K, Uphoff E, Vedanthan R, Wright J, Wright K, Zavala GA, Siddiqi N. Development of a core outcome set for multimorbidity trials in low/middle-income countries (COSMOS): study protocol. BMJ Open 2022 12(2):e051810.
Link to the article here.

Mishu MP, Peckham EJ, Wright J, Taylor J, Tirbhowan N, Ajjan R, Al Azdi Z, Stubbs B, Churchill R, Siddiqi N. Interventions for preventing type 2 diabetes in adults with mental disorders in low and middle income countries. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2019, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD013281.
Link to the article here

Rajan S, Paton LW, Chowdhury AH, Zavala GA, Aslam F, Huque R, Khalid H, Murthy P, Nizami AT, Prasad Muliyala K, Shiers D, Siddiqi N, Boehnke JR. Knowledge and Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in People With Severe Mental Illness in Bangladesh and Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Survey. Front Psychiatry 2022 13:785059.
Link to the article here

Naheed A, Ashraf MN, Chakma N, Jennings HM, Nahar P. Protocol for integrating mental health services into primary healthcare facilities: a qualitative study of the perspectives of patients, family members and healthcare providers in rural Bangladesh. BMJ Open. 2022 12(2):e052464.
Link to the article here

Zavala GA, Haidar-Chowdhury A, Prasad-Muliyala K, Appuhamy K, Aslam F, Huque R, Khalid H, Murthy P, Nizami AT, Rajan S, Shiers D, Siddiqi N, Siddiqi K, Boehnke JR; IMPACT Research Team. Prevalence of physical health conditions and health risk behaviours in people with severe mental illness in South Asia: protocol for a cross-sectional study (IMPACT SMI survey) BMJ Open 2020 10:e037869.
Link to the article here

Wright J, Mazumdar P, Barua D, Lina S, Bibi H, Kanwal A, Mujeeb F, Naz Q, Safi R, Ul Haq B, Rana RZ, Nahar P, Jennings H, Sikander S, Huque R, Nizami A, Jackson C; NIHR Global Health Research Group, IMPACT. Integrating depression care within NCD provision in Bangladesh and Pakistan: a qualitative study. International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2020 14:63
Link to the article here

Kolovos, S., Zavala, G.A., Leijen, A.S., Melgar-Quiñonez H, van Tulder M. Household food insecurity is associated with depressive symptoms: results from a Mexican population-based survey. Food Sec. 2020 12, 407–416.
Link to the article here

Uphoff EP, Newbould L, Walker I, Ashraf N, Chaturvedi S, Kandasamy A, Mazumdar P, Meader N, Naheed A, Rana R, Wright J. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of common mental disorders in people with non-communicable diseases in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Journal of Global Health 2019 9(2): 020417.
Link to the article here

Firth J, Siddiqi N, Koyanagi A, Siskind D, Rosenbaum S, Galletly C, Allan S, Caneo C, Carney R, Carvalho AF, Chatterton ML, Correll CU, Curtis J, Gaughran F, Heald A, Hoare E, Jackson SE, Kisely S, Lovell K, Maj M, McGorry PD, Mihalopoulos C, Myles H, O’Donoghue B, Pillinger T, Sarris J, Schuch FB, Shiers D, Smith L, Solmi M, Suetani S, Taylor J, Teasdale SB, Thornicroft G, Torous J, Usherwood T, Vancampfort D, Veronese N, Ward PB, Yung AR, Killackey E, Stubbs B. The Lancet Psychiatry Commission: a blueprint for protecting physical health in people with mental illness. Lancet Psychiatry. 2019 6(8):675–712.
Link to the article here

Cook N, Siddiqi N, Twiddy M, Kenyon R. Patient and public involvement in health research in low and middle-income countries: a systematic review BMJ Open 2019 9:e026514.
Link to the article here

Zavala GA, Kolovos S, Chiarotto A, Bosmans JE, Campos-Ponce M, Rosado JL, Garcia OP. Association between obesity and depressive symptoms in Mexican population. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2018 53(6):639–646.
Link to the article here 

Conference presentations

Our teams have participated in several conferences and communication activities to share progress and their experience and knowledge.

IMPACT partner organisation – Institute of Psychiatry (IoP)

At the National Annual 10th Public Health Conference of Pakistan at the Health Services Academy on December 3rd 2019, the IMPACT team at IoP made 4 presentations in a mini session allocated to IMPACT during the Mental Health session.

The following presentations were made during the session:

Further presentations by IoP

  • Presentation providing IMPACT updates and progress at the meetings of ORIC (Office of Research Commercialization and Innovation) of Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) from October 2019 till Feb 2020, Prof Asad Tamizuddin and Faiza Aslam
  • Presentation to introduce IMPACT programme and update at Deans meeting of RMU in November 2019, Dr Asad Tamizudd and Faiza Aslam
  • Community Advisory Panel meetings of IMPACT were held on 28thSeptember 2019 for BEACON and on 1stOctober 2019 for SMI/4S
  • Presentation at the Clinico-Pathological Conference of RMU held on 12thof March 2020, to introduce IMPACT and share brief findings of the Survey of Physical and Mental Comorbidity, Prof Asad Tamizudd

IMPACT Partner organisation – National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Presentations at the Symposium for the World Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation World congress. 13th December 2019, Bangalore, Krishna Prasad

Krishna Prasad also presented ‘Counselling for non-communicable disease risk factors reduction’ at the national level review meeting of NPCDCS in Bangalore, 17th December 2019

IMPACT partner organisation – The University of Dundee, UK

Dr Jan Boehnke presented details of the programme and the SMI survey study, on behalf of the IMPACT group, at an online event ‘The Pandemic – where are we now’, led by the Institute for Social Science Research, University of Dundee. September 2020.

Dr Jan Boehnke presented details of Using a Delphi survey for the development of a core outcome set for multimorbidity studies at the GACD Implementation Science School Class of 2020 Reunion Event on 28th April 2021.

Training in conducting systematic reviews

The IMPACT programme delivered online systematic review training through a series of  webinars. Alongside this the team offered more intensive support for review writing groups. The training was offered in collaboration with Cochrane Common Mental Disorders and Cochrane Global Mental Health.

The aim was for participants to learn how to carry out a systematic review. The writing groups were supported to develop and publish a protocol on topics relevant to the IMPACT programme.

By the end of the webinar series participants had:

  • an understanding of the importance of systematic reviews and their role in health/social care policy, practice, and decision making
  • an understanding of the individual steps of the SR process and their importance
  • the skills to plan and conduct their own SR of interventions, including basic literature searching and meta-analytic knowledge
  • awareness of key web-based resources to support the planning and delivery of systematic reviews

You can access the sessions delivered via these YouTube links:

Session 1: Introduction to systematic reviews

Session 2: The review questions and PICOS

Session 3: Literature searching Part 1

Session 4: Literature searching Part 2

Session 5: Study Selection

Session 6: Software Demonstration/Data Extraction

Session 7: Quality Assessment & Risk of Bias

Session 8: Meta-Analysis Part 1

Session 9: Meta-Analysis Part 2

Session 10: Meta-Analysis Part 3 & Narrative Synthesis

Session 11: Write-Up, Reporting & Knowledge Translation Narative Synthesis

Playlist of all sessions:

Facilitators in the videos were based at the University of York: Jen Brown, Najma Siddiqi, Noortje Uphoff and Rachel Churchill; and the University of Leeds, Judy Wright.

The production of the webinar series and YouTube recording was supported by the National Institute for Health Research and the Cochrane Infrastructure funding to the Common Mental Disorders Cochrane Review Group. The views expressed in this recording are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

Other relevant links:

PROSPERO Website: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/

PROSPERO registration video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MltKLEGad9s&t=3s

Cochrane Interactive Learning: https://training.cochrane.org/interactivelearning

Cochrane Library: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/

Writing for publication

The ‘Writing a scientific article’ mentoring-initiative was run by IMPACT over a 6 month period between June – November 2019. It consisted of two-hour interactive sessions once a month and was aimed at researchers who were non-native speakers of English and planning to write research papers for publication in an English-language journal or contribute to submitting research proposals.

The sessions combined theory and practice of scientific writing with a focus on the participants’ research papers 

Sessions will focussed on:

  • Writing tips
  • Structure of sentences and paragraphs
  • How to express personal opinions? 
  • Use of passive voice
  • Sentence structure: foregrounding and backgrounding, word order patterns, conditional clauses, definite and indefinite articles, adverbs, prepositional phrases and verb tenses
  • Summary and abstract
  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion

Click on the links below to download session slides.

Supporting Documents

ASTRA-IMPACT Research (AIR) Webinars

AIR Webinars
This is an open webinar series on research methods developed by the NIHR ASTRA and IMPACT Groups. Webinars have covered topics ranging from sample sizes for surveys to planning an RCT. These have proved popular attracting over 326 participants with an average of 36 for each webinar. 

Other webinars
An additional webinar was run by NIMHANS in March 2020 for South-South capacity building: ‘Physical Health in Severe Mental Illness: Refocusing the Gaze’. There were 140 online participants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Nepal and UK with a variety of organisations joining.

Mentorship programme

The IMPACT programme has developed a structured mentorship programme which has been primarily driven by the mentees seeking to draw support from assigned mentors for different aspects of development. Personal development plans (PDPs) are built and agreed for each Research Fellow based on an initial assessment of research capacity and the requirements for their role within IMPACT. There is a bi-annual review of progress to review effectiveness of capacity-building activities and to plan for the next period. A final research capacity assessment will be used to reflect on progress during their post.

The documents below are useful tools on how to help step through the process of establishing a relationship within a mentorship programme.

Supporting Documents

DiaDeM Programme

Review search strategy for psychological interventions for depression in people with NCDs in South Asia

Members of the DiaDeM team are currently undertaking this systematic review, in this document you can see further details of the search strategy.

Supporting Documents

Behavioural activation webinar sessions

Behavioural activation is a therapeutic intervention that can be delivered by non-specialists to treat depression.

Watch a webinar delivered by Prof Dave Ekers on 24th November 2020

Watch a second session delivered by Karen Coales on 9th December 2020

 
 
   

TB Multimorbidity Network 

Effect of quitting smoking on health outcomes during treatment for tuberculosis: secondary analysis of the TB & Tobacco Trial

Paper written by Dr Kamran Siddiqi published in BMJ Thorax demonstrating that smoking cessation during TB treatment can improve health outcomes.

Supporting Documents

An editorial on The syndemic challenge of tuberculosis and tobacco use (March 2021)

Supporting Documents

Academic Paper lead by Brendon Stubbs (March 2021)
Academic Paper lead by Brendon Stubbs including several members of the TB Multimorbidity team on Tuberculosis and Non-Communicable Disease Multimorbidity:

An Analysis of the World Health Survey in 48 Low- and Middle-Income Countries 

Supporting Documents

Editorial on TB multimorbidity in the The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (Feb 2021)

Several members of the TB Multimorbidity Network, led by Dr. Siddiqi, published an editorial on the urgency of addressing TB multimorbidity as a global health challenge.

Supporting Documents

TB Multimorbidity Newsletter May 2021

Newsletter May 2021 We have published our third newsletter, please click into the document below. If you would like to see anything included in future newsletters please contact us.

Supporting Documents

TB Multimorbidity Newsletter January 2021

Newsletter Jan 2021We have published our second newsletter, please click into the document below. If you would like to see anything included in future newsletters please contact us.

Supporting Documents

TB Multimorbidity Newsletter November 2020

We have published our first newsletter, please click into the document below. If you would like to see anything included in future newsletters please contact us.

Supporting Documents

Adolescents and TB Webinar 14 June 2021

The TB Multimorbidity Network held their third network webinar, we shared current research on TB multimorbidity among adolescents and discussed how TB programmes can better meet the needs of young people. Please click here for the video of the webinar, the slides are available in the supporting document below.

Supporting Documents

TB and Diabetes changing policy and practice Webinar 17 November 2020

We held our second network webinar and meeting of the TB Multimorbidity Network, this included policy-makers, practitioners, people with / survivors of TB and academics who shared
evidence and experience of integrating the screening and management of TB and diabetes within routine care in Africa and Asia, please click here for the video of the webinar, the slides are available in the supporting document below.

Supporting Documents

The IMPASS Study

IMPASS study promotional leaflets

The team have developed printed leaflets about the IMPASS Study for distribution at conferences, events and to non-academic partners to promote awareness and understanding of the IMPASS Study.

Download IMPASS promotional leaflet (1)

Download IMPASS promotional leaflet (2)

 

Research-Policy Forum report - Pakistan

People with SMI are among the most vulnerable populations. The 20 to 30 years mortality gap between people with SMI and the general population is clearly a public health concern and the question arises what are we doing about it?

The IMPASS team held a Research-Policy Forum in Pakistan on 23rd June, 2022, organized by the Institute of Psychiatry (IOP), Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) and the IMPASS research team. Prof Dr Asad Tamizuddin Nizami, the head Institute of Psychiatry, RMU hosted the meeting along with Dr Amina Khan, IMPACT-IMPASS Programme Manager.

At the forum the group discussed that tackling the mortality gap between people with SMI and the general population is not insurmountable. We learnt from the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic that this is possible as in Pakistan 77% of people with SMI were vaccinated which was higher than the general population shown from the survey. Therefore, it is evident that if we put our minds to it we can address this gap and inequality.

Nevertheless, issues like access to healthcare and access to medication needed to be addressed during Covid-19 pandemic.

Two things which were really very positive:

  • Essential Package of health services (EPHS).
  • Digital health framework which is going to provide further help to identify inequity and can be addressed through the EPHS.

Implementing the above two in the next few years will make a huge difference. But it will only make a difference for people with SMI, if we are able to remove
any barriers to access to health care.

The forum was attended by 21 participants, including 7 policymakers, 8 researchers and 6 clinicians. A summary report was prepared to record the recommendations of the forum by Dr Amina Khan and Humaira Khalid on behalf of IMPASS Research Team.

Read the Forum Report

Social media campaign visual assets

In February 2023, the IMPASS study launched a social media campaign to raise the profile of the project.

Below are some of the visuals developed to support the awareness raising activities:

YouTube