The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution

A simple, human solution for loneliness and depression
When Dr. Dixon Chibanda lost a patient to suicide, he began a soul-searching journey that eventually led to a mental healthcare revolution. As one of only six psychiatrists in all of Zimbabwe, a country traumatized by decades of conflict, Chibanda quickly realized that millions there were suffering from mental illness with no hope of receiving care. He saw that the only way to narrow this care gap was to leverage existing resources in th...