Global proofing a collaborative care telemental health intervention in Brazil

Abstract

Rural proofing ensures that policies, practice guidelines, strategies, and techniques can be applied to rural populations with approximately equal benefit as what would be obtained in urban areas. Extending this concept internationally, the authors argue the importance of global proofing mental health strategies developed in well-resourced, high-income areas in order to determine their appropriateness in areas that have resource poverty such as middle- and low-income countries. An example is used to illustrate both rural and global proofing. Through this example, the authors demonstrate how they proofed urban-inspired models of mental health care in rural areas of the United States. The result is a model of rural mental health care that emphasizes collaborative care and telemental health. This model is now being global proofed in Brazil. The authors describe the application of this model in a remote rural town in Brazil. Consistent with World Health Organization recommendations, the integration of mental health care into primary care medical settings is being discovered as essential to addressing mental health disparities worldwide. (PsycINFO Database Record