EP154 Scaling Mental Health Solutions with John Pateña

I AM GPH

In this episode we speak with John Pateña, an implementation science specialist at Montefiore Health System and a DrPH candidate at NYU GPH. John discusses his groundbreaking work in global mental health, highlighting the use of task-sharing interventions to empower trusted community health workers in delivering mental health care, particularly in underserved regions. He shares insights from his involvement in the Friendship Bench initiative, which started in Zimbabwe and has been successfully scaled across multiple countries. John also discusses his current research on applying these interventions to support sickle cell patients in Nigeria and his work with the NIH Fogarty International Center. Tune in to learn how implementation science bridges the gap between research and practice to make mental health care more accessible worldwide.