Friendship Bench
Healthy Living Nation is currently in negotiation with the Friendship Bench (FB) project, an evidence-based intervention developed in Zimbabwe, by Dr. Dixon Chibanda in 2006, to bridge the mental health treatment gap. The FB aims to enhance mental well-being and improve quality of life through the use of problem-solving therapy delivered by trained lay health workers, focussing on people who are suffering from common mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression.
The FB trains grandmothers, who are community volunteers, without any prior medical or mental health experience, to counsel patients on wooden benches within the grounds of clinics in discrete areas.
It is now being used in New York City, Canada, and across the world. The HLN initiative will be the first effort in Georgia and just the second in the United States.
The Friendship Bench project will offer a brief psychological intervention addressing depression in safe spaces across Metro-Atlanta. The cognitive behavior therapy based intervention, a problem solving approach, will be carried out by trained Lay Health Workers.
The training manual explains common mental disorders (CMD) and how to administer and score the locally validated questionnaires that assess CMD. Furthermore, required counselling skills are explained in detail, as is the Problem Solving Therapy (PST) and how to use it with Friendship Bench clients. Topics such as strong emotional reactions, suicide assessment and referral, home visits, supervision and self-care are also discussed in specific chapters.