Deborah Oyine Aluh wins the João Monjardino Award 2023

The winner of the 2023 João Monjardino Award, Deborah Oyine Aluh, is the author of the article Contextual factors influencing the use of coercive measures in Portuguese mental health care, published in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry on August 3, 2023.

 The study aimed to explore the perspectives of mental health professionals who have first-hand experience with the use of coercion and the contextual factors that influence the use of coercion in mental health care in Portugal.  The work, which was based on focus groups with 23 doctors and 17 nurses from five psychiatric services in urban and rural areas of Portugal, concluded that resolving existing systemic problems is crucial to the successful implementation of interventions aimed at reducing coercion in mental health care.

Deborah Oyine Aluh is a doctoral student in the International Doctoral Program in Global Public Health offered by a consortium of four Portuguese public health institutions: NOVA's National School of Public Health, NOVA's Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, NOVA Medical School, and the University of Porto (Institute of Public Health/Faculty of Medicine). She is currently completing her doctoral research at the Institute of Global Mental Health in Lisbon, CHRC, NOVA Medical School. She is a faculty member of the Lisbon International Learning Program on Mental Health Policies and Services and the glossary working group at the EU COST Action, FOSTREN.

The João Monjardino Award 2023, now in its third edition, was dedicated to the theme "Mental Health: Clinical and Services Research." This is an initiative of the Francisco Pulido Valente Foundation and the Foundation for Science and Technology, which aims to stimulate research, experimental development, and innovation in the field of Biomedical and Health Sciences by recognizing the merit of scientific and technological activities carried out in this field. The award ceremony will be held on a date to be announced.