What is next for the United Nations? Building a more secure world
One of our Trustees Clare Copleston was honoured to be involved in a United Nations virtual meeting in October and she was able to bring the Dignity message to her involvement. We include her reflections on the event here.
The United Nation’s hosted their 75TH Anniversary Conference during October 2020.
The global conference took place virtually, and addressed the overwhelming insecurities induced by Covid-19. Participants were able to take part in a series of workshops that focused on Health, Food, Environment, Economics, Peace, and the Digital Space.
The Conference started on Sunday 18th October by exploring the challenges we face in mainstream access to mental health care for all.
There was a selected international panel of experts, chaired by Dame Sally Davies. Our Trustee Clare Copleston was selected to chair the health security for the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria, with the workshop focusing on the Mainstream access to mental health care services for all.
Clare Invited a highly informative panel of experts, and had the honour of welcoming to her workshop:
Dr. Victor Ugo - is the Senior Campaign Officer at United for Global Mental Health and the founder of one of Africa’s biggest user-led youth mental health networks, Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative. His organization won the 2017 Nelson Mandela-Graca Machel innovation award for best civil society organization and got inducted as one of the 100 sparks of hope across the world by the Elders. Victor pioneered the setup of the most active distress line in Nigeria, with over 25,000 interventions in 3 years and is the Nigerian representative for the Global Mental Health Peer Network.
Lena Zamchiya - Operations and Franchise Director of Friendship Bench. Lena has extensive experience in the Not for profit sector both in Zimbabwe and internationally. She leads all internal operations within Friendship Bench as well as its international expansion. The Friendship Bench (FB) project is an evidence-based intervention developed in Zimbabwe to bridge the mental health treatment gap. Its problem-solving therapy is delivered by trained lay health workers.
Olivia Green - BSc Forensic Psychology. A Mental Health Recovery Worker, working closely in the community with patients under Ministry of Justice restrictions, as well as those with complex needs and risk histories. Currently studying MSc Clinical Child Psychology.
Clare explored lessons learned, shared best practices, and discussed what could be done to invigorate our struggling health-care systems. At the end of the session, they re-convened to look at synergies and explore what actions could be taken at an individual, community, national or international level.
The Friendship Bench
Clare would like to highlight one of the projects that she has learned about through working with the United Nations, which is the wonderful intervention of the “Friendship Bench” that has helped and supported many individuals with their ongoing mental health difficulties.
The Friendship Bench is a tool for positive mental and emotional health used in various settings. It is used as a psychological intervention to address depression usually by trained lay health workers.
The Friendship Bench (FB) project is an evidence-based intervention developed in Zimbabwe 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 Friendship Bench intervention has been developed over a twenty-year period from community research in Zimbabwe. It uses a cognitive behavioural therapy-based approach at primary care level to address 'kufungisisa' – the local word closest to depression (literally, “thinking too much” in Shona).
Uniquely, the Friendship Bench uses ‘grandmothers’ to deliver the therapy. These grandmothers are community volunteers, without any prior medical or mental health experience, who are trained to counsel patients usually for six structured 45-minute sessions, on wooden benches within the grounds of clinics in a discrete area.
The Impact
In 2016, the results from a Friendship Bench randomized controlled trial were published in JAMA, showing that the group from the Friendship Bench had a significant decrease in depressive symptoms, compared to the control group.
Since 2006, Dr Chibanda and his team have trained over 600 of the grandmothers in evidence-based talking therapy, which they deliver for free in more than 70 communities in Zimbabwe, and in 2017 alone 30,000 were seen on a Friendship Bench. The Friendship Bench has now expanded beyond Zimbabwe; it is being used in Malawi and Zanzibar, and it has been adapted for New York City, highlighting that interventions created in low- and middle-income countries can be adapted for high-income countries.
It is wonderful to be able to learn about the diversity and culture of mental health care needs and interventions taking place around the world and how this differs from our own health care services here in the U.K.
For more information please visit www.friendshipbenchzimbabwe.org (opens new window)