Diaspora and peer support working: benefits of and challenges for the Butabika-East London Link

Dave Baillie; Mariam Aligawesa; Harriet Birabwa-Oketcho; Cerdic Hall; David Kyaligonza; Richard Mpango; Moses Mulimira; Jed Boardman

doi:10.1192/s2056474000000064

Diaspora and peer support working: benefits of and challenges for the Butabika-East London Link

BJPsych Int. 2015 Feb 1;12(1):10-13. doi: 10.1192/s2056474000000064. eCollection 2015 Feb.

Authors

Dave Baillie¹, Mariam Aligawesa², Harriet Birabwa-Oketcho³, Cerdic Hall⁴, David Kyaligonza⁵, Richard Mpango⁶, Moses Mulimira⁷, Jed Boardman⁸

Affiliations

¹ Consultant Psychiatrist, and Chair, Butabika-East London Link, East London NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK, email davewhbaillie@gmail.com.
² Charge Nurse, Co-Chair, Butabika East-London Link, and Co-chair, Ugandan Diaspora Health Foundation, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
³ Consultant Psychiatrist, Butabika Hospital, Kampala, Uganda.
⁴ Nurse Consultant, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
⁵ Director of Nursing, Butabika Hospital, Kampala, Uganda.
⁶ Head Occupational Therapist, Butabika Hospital, Kampala, Uganda.
⁷ Life Skills and Recovery Mental Health Worker, and Co-chair, Butabika-East London Link, East London NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
⁸ Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Social Psychiatry, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.

Abstract

The International Health Partnership ('the Link') between the East London NHS Foundation Trust and Butabika Hospital in Uganda was set up in 2005. It has facilitated staff exchanges and set up many workstreams (e.g. in child and adolescent psychiatry, nursing and psychology) and projects (e.g. a peer support worker project and a violence reduction programme). The Link has been collaborative and mutually beneficial. The authors describe benefits and challenges at individual and organisational levels. Notably, the Link has achieved a commitment to service user involvement and an increasingly central involvement of the Ugandan diaspora working in mental health in the UK.