Transforming Primary
Care for Major Depressive
Disorder Worldwide
Empowering family doctors in Africa-Middle East, Asia, and Latin America to enhance care for major depressive disorders through expert-led courses and practical training.
What is MDD Minds?
The MDD MINDS FOR PRIMARY CARE Program aims to enhance the quality of care for major depressive disorders delivered by family doctors in Africa-Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.
To achieve this, we have developed three key phases: a self‑paced online course called "MDD Minds 101", a more in‑depth Train‑the‑Trainer course, and a performance in practice initiative.
This program has been developed by a diverse Master Faculty consisting of 12 mental health experts from various regions around the world.
MDD Minds 101
About the course
Initially, the course was open to family doctors and primary care professionals residing in Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Saudi Arabia, and Sri-Lanka. Now the materials are publicly available for anyone interested in strengthening their competencies and confidence in managing mental health problems.
The course modality
"MDD Minds 101" is a self-paced online course.
Languages
The course is currently offered in English, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.
MDD Minds in Numbers
participants completed the MDD Minds 101 course.
family doctors and primary care professionals enrolled in the Train the Trainer Program and 126 of them conducted local sessions to train other colleagues
practices across Brazil, Japan, and Nigeria implemented a quality improvement program for screening depression among diabetes patients. As a result, 1,011 diabetic patients were evaluated, with 22.4% identified as having depression.
The Funding
This project is funded by an unrestricted grant from Pfizer*.
* An unrestricted grant is a form of funding provided to an organization without specific limitations or conditions imposed on its use. This means there are no restrictive guidelines or specific requirements dictating how the money should be spent, nor any influence on the content or outcome of the program. In this case, WONCA Association has the freedom to implement the program according to its principles and maintaining its autonomy.
Key Achievements
The project empowered family doctors and primary care professionals with essential skills to manage depression and train fellow practitioners. They reported significant improvements in their ability to:
Diagnosing MDD in culturally diverse contexts
Educate patients on health promotion and lifestyle changes
Apply shared decision-making principles
Select appropriate pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments
Manage comorbidities
Develop team approaches to care
Communicate effectively with specialists
Follow up with patients to re-evaluate care
The Team
This initiative is led by WONCA's Working Party on Mental Health, and implemented in collaboration with Mosaica Solutions.
Updates
