Mental Health

Mental Health

Address 1 in 5 kids with emotional, developmental, and behavioral conditions

Mental health is fundamental to the health and development of children, families, and communities. Yet around the world, far too many children and adolescents lack access to the supports and services they need to thrive, particularly in communities affected by poverty, displacement, conflict, and other forms of adversity.

The Global Mental Health Program at Boston Children's Hospital brings together the expertise of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Margaret C. Ryan Global Health Program to advance equitable, sustainable approaches to child and adolescent mental health worldwide. The Global Mental Health Program draws upon a multidisciplinary community of Boston Children's faculty and staff with expertise spanning child and adolescent mental health, trauma and resilience, school mental health, health system strengthening, workforce development, belonging, and sustainability.

Our global work is guided by the same Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Aspirational Statements that guide our local and national work, "REWARD": Research-Driven Care, Equitable Care, Whole-Child Care, Accessible Family-Centered Care, Ready to Care, and Dedication to Sustainably Funded Care. These aspirations take on particular importance in a global context. They call us to generate and apply rigorous evidence in partnership with communities; address inequities in access and outcomes; understand children within the context of their families, schools, communities, cultures, and environments; bring mental health promotion, prevention, and care into the settings where children and families already live, learn, and receive care; strengthen and support the global caregiving community; and develop approachesthat are sustainable within local systems.

Vision

To improve the mental health and well-being of children, adolescents, and families by strengtheningsystems of care that are responsive to the priorities, resources, cultures, andcontexts of the communities they serve.

Mission

Across both developmentand humanitarian settings, the Global Mental Health Program (GMHP) partnerswith communities, governments, universities, health and education systems, andlocal organizations to build workforce capacity and well-being, strengthen systems,generate and apply evidence, and develop approaches that can be sustained and scaled locally.

Our Approach

Through these partnerships, GMHP aims not simply to bring mental health interventions to communities, but to build enduring local capacity and resilient systems so that children, families, and those who serve them can thrive.
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Rather than relying solely on specialty mental health services, we seek to expand access by integrating evidence-informed, culturally-affirming mental health promotion, prevention, early intervention, and treatment into the settings where children and families already live, learn, and receive care, including schools,communities, primary care, and health systems. Our work is grounded in partnership with local communities and systems so that approaches are responsive to local priorities, resources, cultures, and contexts.
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Central to this work isthe recognition that supporting children and families also requires supportingthe people who care for, teach, and serve them. Consistent with the Department's aspiration to ensure a global caregiving community that is Ready to Care, GMHP is committed to promoting the mental health and well-being of the workforce itself, including health professionals, educators, community workers, humanitarian responders, and others serving children and families. Through the direct promotion of workforce well-being, strengthening organizational supports, and addressing chronic stress, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress, we aim to foster a workforce that has both the skills and support needed to provide sustained, compassionate care, including in the most challenging settings.

Program Streams

GMHP partners with communities, local organizations, universities, agencies, and governments through the following streams:

  • Evaluation and Implementation: Evaluating programs and approaches, generating and applying evidence, and supporting effective implementation within local systems.
  • Technical Assistance and Capacity Building: Providing technical assistance andstrengthening local capacity to promote and sustain child and adolescent mentalhealth and well-being.
  • Prevention and Intervention Co-design: Co-designing and adapting culturally-affirming mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention approaches focused on fostering child, family, and community well-being.
  • Education and Workforce Development: Co-designing educational and training programs with and for community members, government partners, caregivers, educators, pediatric health workers, mental health providers, and others who support children and families.

Mental Health Projects

View all projects

Families as Teaching Partners: Scaling Family-Led Support for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities

A long-standing partnership with Centro Ann Sullivan del Perú is turning a Peruvian-developed, family-led approach to neurodevelopmental care into a manualized, adaptable model successfully tested across borders and now being prepared for communities more broadly.

School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA): Building a School-Wide System to Promote Student Wellbeing

Boston Children’s partners with SOLA, the world’s only boarding school for Afghan girls, to build a trauma-informed, culturally affirming system of care that integrates student wellbeing across academic and residential life and strengthens staff and programmatic capacity to support students.

Assisting Colombian National Police's Wounded Warriors

The Colombian National Police Wounded Warriors Assistance Project is designed to build capacity for physical and psychological rehabilitation services across Columbia and to create clear alternative training opportunities and career pathways for disabled police.
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Global Mental Health Team Members

Vanja Pejic, PhD

Dr. Pejic’s research, clinical practice, and teaching are dedicated to addressing and reducing health disparities experienced by marginalized children, youth, and families, with a particular emphasis on forcibly displaced populations both locally and globally. Her work explores the intersection of refugee mental health, trauma-informed care, and school mental health, aiming to develop and evaluate culturally attuned, trauma-informed systems that promote the health and well-being of displaced children and families. Currently, Dr. Pejic leads a project in Kigali, Rwanda, focused on conducting a comprehensive needs assessment and engaging in continuous stakeholder consultation to enhance psychosocial programming and support the development of SOLA, an Afghan girls’ boarding school. Additionally, she is leading a project with educators from Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan to better understand the mental health needs of educators and children affected by ongoing conflict and violence. Dr. Pejic has also contributed to teaching and training initiatives related to trauma-informed education in Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, and Australia.

Vanja Pejic, PhD

Hesham Hamoda, MD, MPH

Hesham Hamoda, MD, MPH is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. He is the Co-Director of Global Child and Family Mental Health for the Global Health Program. He has designed global mental health programs grounded in collaborative care that would hopefully prove innovative, scalable, and impactful.  Over the last 10 years he has developed a school mental health program for the World Health Organization that has been implemented in several countries and trained 2200 master trainees from over 650 schools. He has also worked on a mapping project for child, adolescent and maternal mental health services in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Dr. Hamoda completed his Psychiatry training at the Harvard South Shore Program followed by a Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He also holds a master degree in Public Health from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health in Global Health.

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Hesham Hamoda, MD, MPH
Co-Director, Global Child and Family Mental Health

Stacy Drury, MD, PhD

Dr. Stacy Drury is the Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Boston Children's Hospital. She holds a BA in Biology and Religious Studies from the University of Virginia and an MS in Human Genetics from the University of Michigan. She earned her MD/PhD in Genetics at Louisiana State University,followed by residencies in adult and child psychiatry at Tulane University. Dr.Drury directs the NIH-funded Telomere Research Network, and has ongoing research projects across the U.S., and in Suriname, Sierra Leone, and Romania.Her work focuses on the biological pathways through which early life adversity,within and across generations, influences child development, and how the early parent-child relationship can buffer these effects. She is dedicated to promoting health equity and addressing the systemic effects of structural and multi-generational racism and health disparities. Dr. Drury advocates for transdisciplinary collaboration to advance understanding of the origins of child mental illness and to drive innovation in prevention and treatment.

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Stacy Drury, MD, PhD

Emma Cardeli, PhD

Emma Cardeli, Ph.D. is an Attending Psychologist & Research Associate at the Trauma & Community Resilience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cardeli brings unique expertise in the impact of trauma on developmental trajectories and risk behaviors and has developed and disseminated violence and suicide prevention programming across the globe. This has included supporting reintegration and rehabilitation efforts of women and children from formerly ISIS-controlled territories. Dr. Cardeli provides global training and consultation in principles of trauma-informed care and trauma-focused treatment, strengthening providers’ and organizations' capacities to deliver psychosocial services in a manner that's congruent with community needs and norms. Her research, clinical practice, and consultation to date has focused on strengthening health, social service, and educational systems to better meet the needs of children and families impacted by violence and displacement, as well as the needs of the frontline providers who serve them. Dr. Cardeli also brings expertise in person-centered approaches to program design, and has conducted needs assessments in Jordan, Central Asia, Rwanda, and Colombia in support of community efforts to develop co-located, collaborative, integrated care models.

Emma Cardeli, PhD