Prossy is a 30-year-old South Sudanese woman who fled to Uganda with her four children to escape the civil war at home. Her husband had traveled ahead and awaited their arrival in the Palabek refugee settlement in northern Uganda. The journey was long and arduous. During their months in transit, Prossy dreamed of the moment…
By Capital FM News Reporter Kidandi Moses Experts have warned of an urgent need to address growing depression cases across the country, especially in local communities. This mental health condition has resulted in many cases of unexplained deaths due to suicide, violence, school dropouts, poverty, and more. Depression is a common and serious medical condition…
33-year-old Pamela resides in a small village within Lamwo District, Northern Uganda. As a busy mom attempting to manage long-standing medical issues, her days are often mentally and emotionally exhausting. In 2021, the unexpected cost of surgery caused Pamela to experience persistent feelings of sadness. Suddenly, all that began to consume her mind was the…
by Rasa Dawson, Chief Development and Communications Officer at StrongMinds Published on the OECD Forum Network’s blog Over the past few years, the impact of untreated mental health conditions has become undeniable, as families around the world struggle with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to the stressors of everyday life. This is…
In 2021, StrongMinds launched an educator training pilot to explore the potential of instructing teachers to lead group interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-G) sessions for adolescent students in Uganda. After formal training, teachers deployed the skills obtained under StrongMinds’ supervision and delivered IPT-G sessions in groups consisting of 10-11 students. Initial results indicated that this model…
Before Harriet joined StrongMinds’ therapy group in 2017, her life was filled with pain and difficulty. As a single mother of twins, relying on her own twin brother for financial support, each day carried its struggles. Harriet’s story became even more challenging when she lost her brother unexpectedly. Without warning, she was left alone to…
Investing in mental health may be the most cost-effective way to improve human well-being. This news comes from a report recently released by the Happier Lives Institute (HLI), entitled Happiness for the Whole Family, which concluded that mental health support provides greater long-term benefits to recipients and their household members than a direct cash transfer. HLI…
Building on our successes scaling through teletherapy during the pandemic, StrongMinds has now integrated phone-based technology throughout our operations, enhancing our ability to identify and treat individuals with depression, even as our in-person therapy operations resume. We continue to offer a pathway to depression screenings through *252, a short-code phone number in Uganda, and WhatsApp…
In 2022, Australian endurance athlete Jack Thompson will ride 1 million meters of elevation – two and a half times the height of the International Space Station to raise €1 million (~USD 1.1 million) for four worldwide charities. StrongMinds has been selected as one of the beneficiaries of this fundraiser. Jack will cycle up the…
A new scientific brief from the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25%. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called this “a wake-up call to all countries to pay more attention to mental health and do a…