In the spring of 2004, SAMHSA formed the Planning Group on Iraq Mental Health to help Iraq’s Ministry of Health re-establish behavioral health services in Iraq.  SAMHSA sponsored two Action Planning Conferences on Iraq Mental Health in 2005 and 2006 in Amman, Jordan and Cairo, Egypt bringing together mental health professionals from throughout Iraq to jointly plan behavioral health services, where they identified substance abuse, forensics, services for children and adolescents, and on-going trauma, as the country’s behavioral health priorities.

Dr. Nsaif al-Hemiary, Winnie Mitchell, Administrator Pam Hyde, and Dr. Sabah Sadik at the Iraqi Cultural Center

Beginning in 2008, SAMHSA and Iraq have sponsored the Iraq-SAMHSA Initiative through which Iraq has sent teams of Iraqi behavioral health providers to the US to observe services that they want to implement in Iraq and to share clinical insights with their US colleagues on ways to improve services in both countries.  Five teams visited the US in 2008, and six more teams visited the US in the fall of 2010.

Services observed by the Iraqi teams in both 2008 and 2010 have included trauma services, substance abuse services, and children’s mental health services; in 2008, teams also visited mental health services for the elderly and community-based rehabilitation services.  Two Iraqi teams in the US this fall visited a variety of award-winning trauma-informed care and services sites on the East Coast, and the team on substance abuse services was hosted by the INOVA Fairfax Comprehensive Addiction Treatment Services program (CATS) and the Pacific Southwest ATTC at UCLA.  Johns Hopkins again hosted an Iraqi team on school-based mental health services, and the Children’s National Medical Center again hosted a team on services for mothers and children with serious mental illnesses.  Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene/Forensic Services hosted a team from Baghdad this fall on forensic psychiatric services.

The Iraq-SAMHSA Initiative has resulted in a sharing of ideas that has been beneficial to both the US and Iraqi participants.  All of the Iraqi teams have reported real progress.  The 2008 team on community-based rehabilitation services put community service teams in place that include family members as paid team members.  The two 2010 teams here to observe trauma services have been incorporating trauma-informed care into their hospital and out-patient services, and the substance abuse team is working with their US host sites to participate in a one-year substance abuse treatment certificate program at the University of Cairo.

US providers have reported noteworthy lessons from their Iraqi colleagues, including that US programs need to increase the involvement of families and communities, and that “Recurring or Ongoing Trauma” may be a more appropriate characterization for much of the trauma experienced in conflict regions and under other circumstances such as domestic violence.

For more information on this innovative partnership, the participating US host sites, and the ongoing technical assistance that is a hallmark of this activity, contact Winnie Mitchell, SAMHSA’s International Officer, at Winnie.mitchell@samhsa.hhs.gov.