Enhancing Primary Mental Health Care in Pakistan
Meeting with British Asian Trust (BAT) | 25 April 2025 | GIHD-STMU
The Global Institute of Human Development (GIHD), Faculty of Health Sciences – Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University (STMU), hosted a strategic meeting with the British Asian Trust (BAT) to advance the scale-up of the UHC Benefit Package-based mental health interventions within Pakistan’s primary healthcare system.
This university-led model, developed in partnership with Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (MoNHSRC), World Health Organization (WHO), Central Institute of Family Medicine (CIFM), and STMU’s Department of Family Medicine, has successfully trained 256 family physicians, enabling them to deliver mental health care at the primary level—benefiting over 10,000 patients in the last two years.
Discussions focused on future collaboration, sustainability planning, and integration strategies to build equitable, evidence-based mental health services under the UHC framework.
🔑 Meeting was led by:
- - Prof. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Vice Chancellor, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University
- - Richard Hawkes, CEO, British Asian Trust (BAT)
- - Dr. Syed Usman Hamdani, Founding Director, GIHD-STMU & Program Director, Postgraduate Certificate Course on Mental Health and Research for UHCEO, British Asian Trust (BAT)
- - Dr. Zafar Mirza, Professor of Health Systems and Population Health, GIHD-STMU
Together, we are paving the way toward accessible and integrated mental health care for all Pakistanis.