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MHPSS Community Tabletop Exercise (Uganda)

In March 2025, the UK-PHRST Capacity Strengthening and Research teams jointly supported the Ugandan Ministry of Health to organise a tabletop exercise to assess Mental Health and Psychosocial Support interventions in Uganda by bringing together stakeholders from the Ministry of Health and district health teams from Bundibugyo and Kasese districts.

Photo credit: MoH Uganda

With design and delivery support from the UK-PHRST, the team used a tabletop exercise to simulate outbreak scenarios that might happen in real life, allowing stakeholders to work through what their response might be.

Photo credit: MoH Uganda

The tabletop exercise in Uganda both assessed the MHPSS preparedness and response status at the national and district levels and acted as a learning exercise by highlighting gaps in current response capacity. The exercise brought out practical lessons and recommendations to improve response in future disease outbreaks and forms part of the wider UK-PHRST research project Making mental health support part of outbreak planning in Uganda.

Biksegn Yirdaw from the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Team, UK-PHRST said:

“It has been a pleasure to co-develop, design and deliver this tabletop exercise alongside our Ugandan partners. It was a unique opportunity which shared real experiences and learnings from diverse groups, from national leaders to community representatives.”