Strategic Collaboration: Columbia-WHO Center of Global Mental Health and the Government of Pakistan
New York, NY: June 12, 2026
On June 12, 2026, Dr. Geoffrey M. Reed, Director of the Columbia-WHO Center for Global Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, participated in a strategic meeting with the Honorable Dr. Malik Mukhtar Ahmad Bharath, Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination for the Government of Pakistan. His Excellency the Minister was accompanied by Dr. Malik Muhammad Safi, Senior Advisor at the Health Planning, System Strengthening & Information Analysis Unit (HPSIU), at the Ministry, and Dr. Syed Usman Hamdani, Founding Director of the Global Institute of Human Development (GIHD) at Shifa Tameer e Millat University, Pakistan. The government of Pakistan has issued a press release based on the meeting, available at: https://pid.gov.pk/site/press_detail/32985
FLII-11 in Pakistan: Identifying Population Mental Health Status for Systems Strengthening
Alongside Dr. Hamdani and designated officials at the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, the Columbia-WHO Center will collaborate on several major projects designed to advance population-level mental health assessment, evidence-informed policymaking, and mental health systems strengthening in Pakistan. One significant priority is to generate the population-level mental health prevalence data necessary to guide policy, identify mental health disparities, and monitor progress towards universal health coverage for mental health.
The Center currently provides technical consultation on Pakistan’s implementation of the World Health Organization’s Flexible Interview for the ICD-11 (FLII-11), a structured diagnostic interview for common and high-burden mental health conditions, the development of which has been led by the Center in its role as a WHO Collaborating Center. The FLII-11 also includes detailed information on service utilization, satisfaction, and barriers, enabling the extraction of indicators to assess progress toward the goals of WHO’s Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030, as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The FLII-11 allows governments and researchers to characterize the mental health status of populations in national epidemiological surveys and other population-based studies, as well as in large-scale clinical studies, including large cohort studies.
Data generated using the FLII-11 will enable researchers and policymakers in Pakistan to quantify disease burden, monitor disparities, and inform future resource allocation. Pakistan is one of 17 countries participating in testing the FLII-11, with coordination and technical consultation provided by the Columbia-WHO Center before its open-access publication by WHO.
In several countries, testing is occurring as part of national prevalence studies, including India, where the largest national mental health survey ever conducted (over 250,000 interviews) is currently underway. Other Columbia-WHO Center activities related to the FLII-11 include consultation on the development of research protocols, reviewing translation methodology, customizing the survey for each country, hosting monthly implementation group meetings, developing additional modules to be used alongside the FLII-11, providing extensive interviewer training resources, and supporting implementing partners in identifying and applying for funding.
We will continue to support Pakistan in the cultural adaptation, translation, validation, and implementation of their survey to ensure policymakers understand their populations’ mental health needs and that policy decisions have a tangible impact at the population level.
Key Areas of Interest
Another pressing issue for the Government of Pakistan is the development of climate-resilient health systems, particularly for children and adolescents. Our Center has developed a Climate Change Vulnerability and Impact Module (CCVI). Data generated using the CCVI Module, paired with the mental health prevalence data from the FLII-11, can help national and public health authorities identify vulnerable populations and better understand the impact of climate-related exposures on their social and mental well-being. This data has the potential to strengthen emergency preparedness and integrate mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) within climate adaptation and humanitarian response systems.
One of the most important expected outcomes of the collaboration with Pakistan is the creation of a national mental health dashboard informed by the results of the FLII-11 and integrated into Pakistan’s emerging health information infrastructure. This real-time dashboard will support evidence-based policymaking and improve population mental health monitoring. The goal of the dashboard is to further global psychiatric epidemiology, improve mental health infrastructure, and strengthen population mental health data systems. Our Center will provide technical guidance on the design and appropriate integration of FLII-11 data into the dashboard, enabling us to directly inform the development of a novel, scalable platform with potential for replicability in other settings.
The Importance of Strategic Partnerships
In many of the countries with which we partner to pilot the FLII-11, as in Pakistan, our collaborators work closely with their respective ministries of health to shape evidence-based policy. For example, in Liberia, where there has never been a national mental health survey, the FLII-11 will generate verifiable data to inform comprehensive service delivery. These findings will enable policymakers to assess the mental health treatment gap and population well-being, thereby directly shaping service delivery and policy decisions. Our partners in Uganda will work directly with the Ministry of Health to implement the FLII-11, with a particular emphasis on how the structural determinants of health shape mental health outcomes and on identifying the associated costs of mental health diagnoses, which has been identified as a major priority area for policymakers in Uganda. Other partners, including our collaborators in Singapore, have successfully translated the findings of previous mental health prevalence surveys into effective policy. The last national mental health prevalence survey in Singapore indicated a high prevalence of OCD, which informed the creation of a specialized OCD clinic. Information about the services most used by the population also informs resource allocation and funding. The Director and Assistant Director of Singapore’s Ministry of Health reviewed the team’s initial proposal and issued a letter of support, indicating their willingness to collaborate to translate research findings into policy.
Ultimately, a major strength of the Columbia-WHO Center is our direct engagement with ministries of health and WHO Regional and Country Offices, which enables our implementing partners to generate findings that align with the priorities of policymakers and legislative bodies, thereby bridging the research-to-practice gap and streamlining policymaking. Our work with Pakistan furthers this engagement and presents an invaluable opportunity to meaningfully advance national health data systems, policy, and service.