MHF Partner Increases Capacity in Haiti

NBCC, through its Global Capacity Building (GCB) Department, works with international partners to deliver Mental Health Facilitator trainings. NBCC has proudly partnered with INUFOCAD University for more than a decade to improve mental health awareness and access in Haiti.

The Mental Health Facilitator (MHF) program provides foundational mental health skills and education to paraprofessionals, laypeople, and professionals from outside of mental health. The program fights stigma and increases service capacity by training individuals to identify, refer, and support others with mental health needs. All curricula include training in helping skills, diversity, violence and trauma, suicide prevention, and referral and consultation skills. Participants who finish the training receive a certificate of completion and are included in the international MHF registry.

Dr. Vijonet Demero is rector of the Institut Universitaire de Formation des Cadres (INUFOCAD) and has shepherded the university’s partnership with NBCC since 2014. He is an MHF Master Trainer, who leads trainings of both MHFs and MHF trainers. Through the training of trainers model, master trainers, who have advanced mental health education and training, prepare community members to instruct others in the curriculum. In this role, Rector Demero has trained hundreds of MHFs in Haiti.

“INUFOCAD University is an academic institution of international excellence whose mission is to prepare leaders for the development of human capital in Haiti and the French-speaking world,” explains Rector Demero.

INUFOCAD is accredited by the Haitian Government's Ministry of National Education and Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). It has offered bachelor's degree programs in human and social sciences (education, management, theology, community development) since 2004 and master's programs in human and social sciences (with specialization in education, theology, global leadership, project management, mental health, distance education and digital pedagogy) since 2016. In 2021, the university began offering doctoral programs in human and social sciences with specialization in education and governance and in theological education.

“The partnership between INUFOCAD and NBCC’s MHF program started in 2014,” recalls Rector Demero. “I remember when KOFAVIV (Commission of Women Victims for Victims) contacted INUFOCAD for a collaboration to deliver training in mental health with NBCC. After several meetings and discussions with NBCC representatives, we finally signed an MOU (memorandum of understanding). The first training session was held on August 2014 at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince in collaboration with the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population. Since that time, we have conducted regular training sessions with financial assistance from NBCC and INUFOCAD University.”

Participating in that first training were 19 professionals, including medical doctors, psychologists, social workers, and educators. Numerous MHF trainings have been held on INUFOCAD’s campus since 2014, with varied audiences. Trainees largely include graduate students in psychology, psychologists, medical doctors, nurses, social workers, educators, pastors, human resource managers, and psychiatrists.

The key to the MHF curriculum is its design for adaptability.

“To ensure the efficacity and efficiency of the program, we contextualized the program,” explains Rector Demero. “We adapt the curriculum based on each audience and mostly based on the cultural context of Haiti.”

This adaptation has allowed the program to thrive, and MHFs have become more important than ever amid the ongoing violence and unrest in the country.

“Since 2014, the MHF program has played a significant role in Haiti,” says Rector Demero. “Through the program, the concept of MHF has been introduced in the Haitian Ministry of Health (MSPP), the State University of Haiti, in media, in church, and in schools. Several individuals in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince are talking about mental health. The ongoing unrest does not affect the role of MHF. On the contrary, the registered MHFs become more present and more engaged in promoting the mental health concept among the leaders and the population.”

The unstable situation in Haiti has affected the university’s ability to safely offer MHF trainings, but it has not stopped them.

“Current unrest in Haiti presented significant difficulties for training delivery,” explains Rector Demero. “Fortunately, the university is in a safe location. That’s why we were able to conduct the training even in these circumstances. But it presents a high risk for the participants to come. That is why some of them stayed overnight on the campus.”

Rector Demero has witnessed a change in public perception around mental health since INUFOCAD began its collaboration with NBCC, which may help prepare the way for needed mental health professionalization in Haiti.

“Since we have MHF on the ground, the concept of mental health is established. People are talking about it. They understand its importance. Because the two mental health hospitals in Haiti are closed by the gangs’ activities, there is a need for a systematic professional mental health service. Professionalization service will be a must since the Haitian government does not provide this kind of service.”

The MHF program offers concrete educational information that can be shaped to each partner’s cultural context and needs. Rector Demero has taken the program’s self-sustainable structure and developed it in a way that aids Haiti’s specific needs.

Through partnerships such as INUFOCAD, NBCC’s MHF program helps to build mental health capacity. If you would like to contribute to these efforts, please consider attending the upcoming 2025 Mental Health Connections conference, as it fully benefits the MHF program. Our microfunding opportunity allows individual donations to the program to benefit MHF partners around the world.

NBCC values our partnership with INUFOCAD and Rector Demero, and we look forward to further collaboration to advance mental health capacity throughout Haiti. 

Rector Vijonet Demero is a psychologist, educator, and pastor. He holds doctorates in humanities and social sciences with a concentration in cognitive psychology from the State University of Haiti (UEH) and in creative leadership for innovation and change with concentration in academic and educational leadership from the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI). Rector Demero is a registered Master Trainer in the MHF program. He has contributed to the preparation of hundreds of MHFs in Haiti. He has also contributed to assisting individuals with mental health challenges in the field of marriage conflict, learning disorders, and problem solving. He has published several books and articles in the fields of education, child protection, leadership, distance learning, and cognition.  

**Opinions and thoughts expressed in NBCC Visions Newsletter articles belong to the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or practices of NBCC and Affiliates.