After witnessing mental health challenges first-hand in Ghana, Faculty of Health Associate Professor Benedict Weobong has made it his mission to understand treatment gaps and train the next generation of global health leaders.
Shortly after completing a psychology degree at the University of Ghana, Weobong became a collaborator on a psychiatrist’s study of psychosis. He had studied mental health challenges, but witnessing them first-hand gave his learning a new direction – one that would shape his career.
During his field work in Ghana, he met families struggling to care for relatives suffering from severe psychological distress. Some, not knowing better, resorted to desperate measures, like locking loved ones outside. Others were so burdened by stigma that they denied the existence of their family member when Weobong came to their door. Most families, he found, didn’t know help existed.
“There was a huge disconnect between understanding well-being challenges and what treatments existed,” he says. “It was clear they didn’t know that psychosis is treatable. You could see the surprise in their faces when they found out.”
The experience left a lasting impression on Weobong; putting human faces to what he had learned in school sparked his determination to bridge the divide between wellness and access to support.
“Those situations challenge you to think about solutions,” he says. “That inspires me to today.”
The faces and stories he encountered in Ghana stayed with him, becoming a driving force behind a career focused on better understanding emotional, psychological and social heath and breaking down barriers to effective intervention.
Now, Weobong is recognized as a leading voice in global mental health epidemiology – the study of mental health conditions across countries, cultures and contexts.
Over the last two decades, his research has evolved to explore how social, cultural and environmental factors shape well-being, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries in the Global South. He investigates gaps in care, measures mental health across populations and tests community-based approaches in delivering treatment where specialists are scarce.
In one study, Weobong surveyed adults visiting primary health care clinics in three rural Ghanaian districts to measure how often neurological, substance-use and psychological conditions were detected. He found that almost all cases went unrecognized, highlighting the need for simple screening tools and staff training.
Another study examined mental health services in five Ghanaian districts, mapping available resources including staff, medications and community outreach. It showed severe shortages and identified priority areas for intervention, such as integrating psychological support into district health plans and training non-specialist health workers.
Seeing barriers to health care widen globally, Weobong has come to champion community-based innovation that empowers laypeople – those without formal clinical training – to provide effective support. “People think only psychiatrists can provide therapy,” he says. “But it’s clear you can train others to do it just as well.”
The insights gained from this research now guide how Weobong trains future leaders at York University, where he has been a key member of the School of Global Health since 2023.
He is using his solutions-focused mindset to inform the Global Mental Health specialized honours stream within York’s undergraduate Global Health program. The stream trains students to think critically and develop innovative approaches to strengthen mental health systems, policy and service delivery worldwide.
The program builds on York’s growing leadership in international health education by preparing students to tackle challenges that transcend borders – from addressing stigma to implementing community-based interventions that promote equity and access.
“I challenge students to think outside the box,” he says. “It’s about instilling in them a sense of solutions so they can be agents of change.”
For someone whose field work was so eye-opening, Weobong has centred his teaching on experiential learning – connecting theory to practice to inspire students to become solution-oriented thinkers. In his courses, students explore the links between well-being and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, complete online learning with the World Health Organization, and soon, will work directly with local communities to develop ideas for improving outcomes.
To train a new generation of global mental health leaders – particularly at doctoral and postdoctoral levels – Weobong is creating opportunities for students and early-career professionals to engage with large-scale research projects.
One initiative is HEATSCAPE Africa – a five-year project led by Weobong that examines how heat affects health, sleep and cognitive function among adolescents, women of reproductive age and older adults in Ghana and Zimbabwe. The project aims to identify opportunities for interventions in low-resource communities.
At York, Weobong uses these initiatives to turn understanding into action – just as his early encounters with families in Ghana shaped his approach to addressing health disparities. Today, he sees students and communities as the next generation ready to do the same.
“Global mental health is about being pragmatic,” he says. “If we can get students thinking about prevention and innovative ways to narrow the treatment gap, the next generation will be the one that truly makes a difference.”