Dukes Foundation invested in the British Asian Trust’s School Mental Health project.

More than 50 million people in Pakistan are affected by mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, yet it is critically under-resourced. Understanding of mental health is extremely low and conditions are highly stigmatised. Services for diagnosis and care are almost non-existent and those that do exist are of poor quality. The British Asian Trust are working to end the stigma and transform support for people with mental health needs.

Their school mental health project has trained over 160 teachers from 40 public schools to identify basic mental health issues in the classroom, provide basic support and make referrals.

This helps provide a positive school environment which promotes good mental health for our youth and supports prevention and early intervention so problems do not escalate. They are also working with the Ministry of Health and Education to recognise mental health as important mandatory training for general practitioners and teachers.