capucine barcellona.

Summary

I supported the scaling journey of The Friendship Bench, a pioneering NGO in mental health peer support which was established in Zimbabwe and whose intervention has been implemented globally. I translated the ‘Friendship Bench in a Box’ intervention training manuals from English into French, Italian and Spanish, ensuring both fidelity and cultural acceptability. I also received mental health peer support training as a ‘Master Trainer’, able to train lay mental health workers in target countries and languages.

Summary

In support of the WHO’s 2030 Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) elimination strategy, I collaborated on a research & policy project for the elimination of HCV in Singapore and Asia Pacific. I acted as project manager within the National University of Singapore, leading a systematic review of HCV elimination in 5 high-income APAC countries (Australia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore). This was supplemented by an investigation of HCV epidemiology, screening and treatment practices in Singapore.

I helped to co-organise various discussions with local experts to advocate on HCV elimination to the Singaporean Ministry of Health. Our team developed a set of policy, clinical and financing recommendations for a national HCV elimination strategy, focusing on micro-elimination among PWID (Persons Who Inject Drugs) and other vulnerable groups.

Summary

In 2023, I was appointed as contributing editor at POINTS – a blog on the history of drugs, alcohol and pharmaceuticals funded by the Alcohol & Drugs History Society. I regularly report on various issues in drug policy & history, focusing on addictions/mental health and on the drug policy landscape of East Asia.

Selected outputs

From colonial indifference to capital punishment: A history of drug use and responses in the Malay peninsula (March 2023). Online article.

Global psychiatry, ‘shenjing shuairuo’ and cultural understandings of depressive disorders in China (August 2023). Online article.

Summary

In 2020, I provided technical and content writing services for Holmusk – a data analytics and health technology company. I planned, wrote and copy edited B2C content on mental & behavioural health to be incorporated in Holmusk‘s user-facing products. I also worked on technical writing and UX support for a digital mental health product.

Summary

My thesis project at Yale-NUS College investigated community-based and psychiatric mental health treatment in Singapore. The project involved conducting historical & policy research, ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews with mental healthcare professionals. I produced a 52-page capstone thesis, receiving an ‘A’ grade from two faculty reviewers.

My thesis broadly argued that mental healthcare in Singapore is heavily medicalised through care hierarchies that prioritise psychiatric treatment. While Singapore also values community-based mental health support, this works hand-in-hand with psychiatric approaches to strengthen biomedical understandings of mental health.

Selected outputs

Psychiatry and community: The biomedicalisation of mental healthcare in Singapore (May 2020). Capstone thesis.

Summary

I was involved in a number of student mental health advocacy projects at Yale-NUS College.

Campus health service evaluation – With a small team, I led a survey and in-depth student discussions to understand students’ experiences of on-campus mental health services and identify areas of improvement.

Peer support – I co-piloted and facilitated a student mental health peer support group, receiving basic counselling and emergency response training.

Student programming – I organised and participated in various mental wellbeing programmes, including sexual assault survivor support and LGBTQ+ mental health.