Grand Challenges Canada’s Global Mental Health Youth Seed Program 2020

Grand Challenges Canada’s Global Mental Health program supports Bold Ideas with Big Impact^® The program focuses on funding high impact innovations that improve treatments and/or expand access to care for people, especially youth, living with or at risk of mental disorder.

This request for proposals is supported by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) UK aid through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Grand Challenges Canada Global Mental Health program.3 We’re looking to fund bold ideas that meet the mental health needs of the most vulnerable 10 to 24 year olds.

Looking for approaches that:
• are culturally sensitive
• are community driven
• are innovative
• add to mental health literacy and/or provide youth-friendly services, while accounting for complex social and environmental factors that contribute to young people’s mental health and wellbeing
• engage young people with lived experiences, and stakeholders, from the outset.

Successful proposals will get seed grants of up to $250,000 CAD over 18 to 24 months to develop and test their proposed innovation. Assuming enough proposals of merit are presented, Grand Challenges Canada will award around 15 seed grants this round. Innovators are to use the seed grant to demonstrate proof of concept of their idea. To be considered for further investment from Grand Challenges Canada, innovators also need to:
• develop a scale and sustainability plan
• attract interest from key stakeholders and partners to enact it. Successful project teams will include people who understand the mental health needs of young people in low resource settings and are capable of developing, testing and refining their innovation to transform their mental health and wellbeing.

The Problem

Mental disorders contribute to 14 percent of the global burden of disease worldwide; 75 percent of this burden occurs in low- and middle-income countries. Individuals living with mental disorders in these regions experience a scarcity of resources and a shortage of trained professionals, limiting their access to evidence-based treatments.

Strategies to identify and treat mental health challenges that are successful in high-income countries are often impractical, ineffective, and too resource-intensive to succeed in lower resource regions. Support for mental health services in low- and middle-income countries consistently lags behind other health priorities, despite the fact that mental illness is a prominent global health concern.

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Youth Mental Health

The global mental health burden is magnified for youth living in low resources settings. The majority of mental health disorders – 75 percent – start before the age of 24. Poor mental health in youth negatively impacts the development of social connections, cultural belonging, emotional wellbeing, educational opportunities, and economic resources. Despite these vulnerabilities, only 12.5 percent of development assistance for mental health targets youth. The Global Mental Health seed funding program aims to address the gap in youth mental health services in low- and middle-income countries by funding innovations that enhance mental health literacy and provide youth-friendly services.

Funding Opportunities

The Global Mental Health program has launched proof-of-concept grants up to $250,000 for innovations that focus on the mental well-being of youth in low- and middle-income countries. We are seeking new ideas that have the potential to transform mental health services available for youth in low-resource settings.

The program will also be extending invitations to innovators that have an already established proof-of-concept to scale-up their mental health innovations through our Transition-to-Scale program.

Request for Proposals

The Global Mental Health program is accepting applications for proof-of-concept grants up to $250,000. Applications should focus on new ideas that have the potential to transforms mental health services available for youth, ages 10 to 24, in low- and middle-income countries. The innovative approaches should seek to enhance mental health literacy and/or provide youth-friendly services while accounting for the complex social and environmental factors that contribute to young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Approaches should be culturally sensitive and community-driven.

Submission deadline is Friday, July 17^th, 2020 at 3:00 PM (EST)