Doha: The Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) at Qatar University (QU) organised a virtual lecture on Qatar’s National Mental Health Study recently.
Dr. Salma Mawfek Khaled, a Research Associate Professor from SESRI-QU, presented this lecture to a large audience of researchers and attendees interested in health in general and mental health in particular.
In addition, she assured the public that this research study would play an important role in supporting the initiation of the necessary foundation for sustaining research productivity in the field of population mental health in Qatar; she also opened the floor for discussion, while answering questions from the public.
Professor Kaltham Al Ghanim, Director of SESRI-QU, added that the institute in collaboration with the MoPH and HMC is conducting the study, which is the first of its kind in the country that collect comprehensive data on the prevalence and associated factors of mental disorders to enhance our understanding of the epidemiology of mental illness in Qatar’s society today. SESRI team has successfully completed 2500 completed out of 5000 target interviews so far.
The study is part of an international collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), Harvard University, University of Michigan, an initiative that has collected data in more than 30 countries worldwide (Lebanon, Iraq, USA, France, Germany, Japan etc.) and it has been instrumental in supporting countries to establish the necessary infrastructure to collect representative epidemiological data of population mental health.
