Our Work In
South America
PERU
PrOMIS and Breathwork
Dr. Kathy Trang is evaluating unique studies in Peru. In the first, she is examining the Pregnancy Outcomes, Maternal, and Infant Study (PrOMIS), a longitudinal birth cohort which has followed women and their children in Lima since 2012, and assessing how maternal trauma exposure and perinatal mental health shape child development and psychopathology risk. She is also evaluating a breathwork intervention to reduce burnout among medical residents and collaborating on initiatives to integrate evidence-based mental health care into primary care settings to expand access and improve outcomes.
Continuum of mental health care in the Peruvian public sector
Drs. Guiseppe Raviola and Stephanie Smith support the local NGO, Socios En Salud (SES) in developing a continuum of care within Peru’s public sector in close collaboration with the Peruvian Ministry of Health. Programs include community mental health for several mental health conditions, integrated depression care within tuberculosis care delivery programs, preventative care for child mental health, and research.
BRAZIL
Sao Paulo Exchange Program
This partnership between Department of Psychiatry from the School of Medicine, University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil and Mass General Brigham has led to the first Neuropsychiatry Unit in South America. This is an academic collaboration in clinical training, graduate and post-graduate medical education, and medical research.
Though in person training, supervision, and mentoring, Dr. Zeina Chemali and the USP Psychiatry leadership, builds capacity between psychiatry, neurology, and neurosurgery. In addition, residents from USP regularly come to Mass General Brigham for clinical observerships.
