---
id: "coronavirus-smarter-crowdsourcing:strategies/Engage-cross-sectoral-partners-to-utilize-availabl"
type: "GovLab policy strategy"
title: "Engage cross-sectoral partners to utilize available mental health resources and increase the supply of…"
url: "https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/strategies/engage-cross-sectoral-partners-to-utilize-availabl"
summary: "Engage cross-sectoral partners to utilize available mental health resources and increase the supply of providers"
source: "The GovLab (coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org)"
licence: "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)"
---

# Engage cross-sectoral partners to utilize available mental health resources and increase the supply of…

Engage cross-sectoral partners to utilize available mental health resources and increase the supply of providers

- Timeframe: 3-6 Months (medium)
- Audience: Civil Society, Vulnerable Populations, Healthcare Providers, Government Workers, Organized Civil Society, Nonprofits
- Type: Technology/Innovation, Partnerships, Capacity Building
- Recommendation: [Increase provider capacity](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/recommendations/increase-provider-capacity)
- Part of: [Smarter Crowdsourcing in the Age of Coronavirus](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/)

## Actions governments should take

1. Work with local community leaders to identify mental health gaps and needs of their community.
2. Form multi-sectoral commissions with diverse representations of experts to conduct needs assessments and define the mental health needs of specific groups and to identify the best strategies to reach those needing support.
3. Partner with universities and colleges to recruit psychology, psychiatry and nursing students to offer care via telehealth and other technologies.
4. Partner with schools, workplaces, community centers, religious institutions and other cultural institutions to offer training opportunities to build the capacity of non-specialist staff persons in these institutions.
5. Engage these institutions to socialize available resources and direct their constituents, members, students, employees etc. to those available resources.
6. Conduct training of trainers (TOT) for basic psychological first aid courses and make training available to non-specialists and laypersons in communities and community institutions.
7. Ensure that schools, community centers, religious institutions and other cultural centers are aware of and provide support resources to their constituent members.
8. Create an online course or asynchronous learning module that explains the fundamentals of the requested collaboration, including instructions on how to use the appropriate softwares, apps, or other data collection technologies.
9. Identify neighboring jurisdictions or external supplies of providers that have capacity to support provision of services via tech-enabled services (e.g. phone lines, telemedicine, etc.).

## Examples from around the world

1. [In Colombia, health workers from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana have created repositories of existing mental health educational resources for people to use. Translating resources from other languages (English tends to be the richest) is less resource and time intensive than creating these resources from scratch.](https://www.javeriana.edu.co/mentalpuntodeapoyo/)