Joan, 31, is the mother of three girls and the “house mother” for eight boys, at a boarding school for kids abandoned on the streets of Kampala. In this role, Joan is someone the boys can rely on to assist in their daily routines, speak with about a problem, or play a game of soccer.…
StrongMinds is pleased to announce we have expanded our mental health services to Zambia. Working closely with Zambia’s Ministry of Health and other partners, we have recruited and trained eight Zambian Mental Health Facilitators who are providing depression treatment for over 1,200 women in 2019, with plans to serve many more in the coming years.…
In December, the entire StrongMinds team was deeply saddened when we lost a dear friend and colleague. Medi Ssengooba, who served as a longstanding StrongMinds Uganda Board member and eventually Chair, passed away unexpectedly after a brief illness on December 14th. Medi lived a remarkable life. He suffered from polio as a child and spent…
HARVESTING HAPPINESS Afiya, 16, shares her story of her mother, Adellah’s recovery from the ‘Black Night’ of depression I remember that bright morning, waking up and being so excited about going to school. I was looking forward to reading my poem out loud in front of the whole class. Miss Dembe had praised my use…
To mark World Mental Health Day (10th October), StrongMinds is launching an awareness campaign called “30 Days of Good Mental Health” on popular Ugandan radio stations Capital FM and Beat FM. The media partnership will see important mental health tips and messages broadcast up to five times a day, beginning on World Mental Health Day…
Ugandan women suffer from unipolar depression at twice the rate of men. StrongMinds trains mental health facilitators who lead peer-group therapy sessions for Ugandan women, and aims to reach two million women by 2025. Read on for this recent article published in Stanford Social Innovation Review. Fall_2018_Strength_in_Numbers (2)
Imani McGee-Stafford, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player for the Atlanta Dream and a mental health advocate, joined StrongMinds in honoring of Mental Health Awareness Month in May 2018. Imani promoted the work of StrongMinds on social media to help raise awareness of the organization and the importance of mental health. Scroll down to view the…
StrongMinds: Treating Depression at Scale in Africa
By David J. Olson @davidjolson The problem with mental health and substance abuse in Africa and other developing countries is not that awareness has not been raised about these huge contributors to the global burden of disability. Annually since 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health Gap Action Programme has been meeting to scale up services for…
Dr. Myrna Weissman, a member of the StrongMinds Advisory Board, recently released an updated and expanded edition of her book, The Guide to Interpersonal Psychotherapy. StrongMinds’ work was founded on a randomized control trial of Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy that took place in Uganda in 2002, which was conducted by Paul Bolton et al. Dr. Weissman adapted…