Capacity Building
Building the next generation of mental health researchers
Good research doesn’t only produce findings, it should leave people and places better equipped to keep asking the right questions. Capacity building is one of PIECEs’ five core Work Packages, and it runs through everything from training early career researchers, to setting up the Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP), to a novel scheme used to fund a programme of ten Small-Scale Research Grants across India and Pakistan.
Small-Scale Research Grants
Small budgets, big ideas. The Small-Scale Research Grant (SSRG) programme set out to strengthen in-country research capacity, put lived experience at the centre of the work, and back participatory, context-specific approaches to severe mental illness, particularly psychosis, in India and Pakistan. Ten community-driven mental health projects, five in each country, that turned modest funding into meaningful, on-the-ground change.
It started with an open call. In Pakistan, the call went out nationwide; in India, it was targeted at early career researchers within the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) network. More than 120 applications came in from across both countries. A dedicated selection board reviewed each one for relevance, feasibility and innovation — and from that pool, ten projects were selected for funding.
SSRG at a glance
- Funded by NIHR, as part of the PIECEs project (RIGHT Programme)
- Administered by IRD (Pakistan) and SCARF (India)
- Budget: £25,000 per country
- Grant size: £500–£5,000 per project
- Applications received: 120+, from 26 cities in Pakistan alone
- Projects funded: 10 (5 per country)
Many of the researchers funded came from outside traditional academic routes — teachers, clinicians, community workers, artists — who brought first-hand knowledge of the communities they set out to serve. What they lacked in budget, they made up for in ingenuity: WhatsApp groups coordinated outreach across mountain terrain, waiting rooms became makeshift theatres, and a prison art class became a space for 13 women to rediscover a sense of self.
Read about the training sessions to help the SSRG ECRs in Pakistan
The 10 SSRG projects
Pakistan
Community Preparedness for Mitigation of Suicide and Depression — Chitral, KPK
In one of Pakistan’s most remote, high-altitude districts, 90 trained Community Wellbeing Volunteers built a referral network linking people at risk of suicide or depression to health services, welfare organisations and police, coordinated largely over WhatsApp. Over 60% of the suicides they analysed in five years of local data were linked to untreated mental health problems, most in people under 30.
Identification and Early Referral of First Episode Psychosis in Pakistan
Teachers, GPs and traditional healers are often the first people someone in crisis will turn to, so this project trained them to recognise the early signs of psychosis and refer people on. Of 217 people screened using two new screening tools, 15% screened positive, most going on to treatment they might otherwise never have reached.
Takhleeq: Exploring Experiences of Arts-Based Interventions in Karachi
Through image theatre, role play and narrative interviews, this project asked what happens when people living with psychosis, their caregivers and mental health professionals explore Theatre of the Oppressed together. The answer: caregivers who had felt isolated began to feel part of a shared struggle, and participants said they finally felt “seen.”
Providing Psychosocial Support to Flood-Affected Women in Sindh
After the 2022 floods devastated Sindh, this project adapted WHO’s Psychological First Aid and Problem Management Plus into a Sindhi-language programme delivered by trained Lady Health Visitors. Depression, anxiety and PTSD scores all fell significantly across 40 participants — proof that even in a disaster zone, culturally-grounded, low-cost mental health support can work.
Improving the Mental Well-being of Women Prisoners in Karachi
Inside Karachi’s Women’s Prison, 13 women joined 20 weeks of group art therapy. Average depression scores nearly halved, from 18.25 to 9.75. One participant went from being unable to hold a pencil to confidently painting. By the end, every single participant wanted to continue.
India
Of the People, For the People, By the People: The ADEPT Project
SCARF’s First Episode Psychosis programme, South Asia’s only established early psychosis service, piloted its first advisory board built entirely around lived experience: people with psychosis, caregivers, social workers, physicians, a journalist and a faith healer, all helping shape clinical care, research and outreach.
Using Photovoice to Empower Persons with Psychosis
Four men living with psychosis spent eight weeks learning photography, then used their cameras to tell their own stories of stigma, identity, disconnection and purpose, culminating in a public exhibition. For some, it was the first time they’d engaged with visual imagery since experiencing hallucinations.
Use of Theatre of the Oppressed Methods to Provide a Voice for Persons with Psychosis
Fourteen participants took part in 30 sessions of games, role-play and forum theatre, building towards five original scenes about rights, autonomy and ownership of their own lives performed for a live audience.
Namma Area: An Informal Community Space
Not every intervention needs a protocol. “Namma Area” is simply a space where people with mental illness can socialise, away from clinical settings — and this project found that the informal, stigma-free environment reduced isolation and encouraged people to keep coming back.
PIECEs SSRG Peer Support Project: Piloting the UPSIDES Model
Three people with lived experience of schizophrenia were trained as Peer Support Volunteers and matched with 27 peers for structured one-to-one sessions. Quality of life and social functioning scores improved significantly — and the volunteers themselves reported new confidence and communication skills.
What we learned
Across ten very different projects, in two countries, on wildly different budgets, the same themes kept surfacing:
Trust travels through people, not paperwork.
Teachers, faith leaders and people with lived experience opened doors that a cold referral never could.
Creativity is not a luxury.
Photography, theatre and art therapy weren’t add-ons, they were often the reason people opened up at all.
A commonly used app can do what a big budget can’t.
WhatsApp groups kept remote and disaster-hit communities connected when nothing else would.
Small grants, real impact.
Even the smallest budgets produced rigorous, publishable research and lasting local networks.
Sustainability is the hard part.
Almost every team asked the same question: what happens when the funding ends?
“Recovery means healing, we can’t heal them completely, but we can help them with their recovery through sharing our experiences.”
— A community member reflecting on the SSRG projects
“The SSRG program provided me with the tools and confidence I needed to turn my research idea into a reality.”
— SSRG grant recipient
“It seems very difficult to manage a limited small-scale budget in a very hard area where travel, weather and other facilities are very rare and expensive. The way that I managed and successfully executed my project amazed and surprised me.”
— SSRG grant recipient, Chitral
Looking ahead
The SSRG programme’s recommendations point to where capacity building goes next:
Expand the model
— more small grants, reaching new regions.
Embed capacity building
as standard in every grant-funded project, not an add-on.
Plan for sustainability from day one,
not as an afterthought.
Connect projects to each other
shared learning, joint funding bids, shared resources.
Lean on local partners
— NGOs and community organisations who can carry the work forward.
Open up the toolkits
— manuals, training materials and datasets, so others don’t have to start from scratch.