Journal Article

The Regional Outreach Programme of the International Headache Society: A WHO IGAP-oriented initiative in partnership with DREAM to improve healthcare for people with headache in Sub-Saharan Africa

Martinelli, Daniele, Leone, Massimo, Tassorelli, Cristina, Dodd-Glover, Freda

2025

Overview

The WHO Intersectoral Global Action Plan (2022–2031) emphasises the importance of scaling up healthcare services to enhance access to care for patients with neurologic diseases. In Sub-Saharan Africa, most patients with neurological conditions, including headache, receive care in primary healthcare services. Here, they are often underdiagnosed and poorly managed, primarily due to the inadequate training of healthcare providers. Through its Regional Outreach Programme (ROPE), the International Headache Society (IHS) partnered with a local primary healthcare programme – the Disease Relief through Excellent and Advanced Means (DREAM) programme – to deliver two structured, in-person training courses to local clinicians in Blantyre, Malawi (in 2022 and 2025). These courses provided primary care providers with practical skills in diagnosing and managing primary and secondary headaches. The programme also included local field-based mentorship periods and a ‘train-the-trainer’ model. The training output indicates that partnerships between international scientific societies, such as the IHS, and established local healthcare programmes, like DREAM, facilitate effective task shifting among primary healthcare providers. This helps to bridge the huge diagnostic and treatment gap for headaches in Sub-Saharan Africa. ROPE represents a successful, replicable model for improving access to care for people with headaches in underserved regions.

• Publisher: SAGE Publishing