Friendship Bench

Friendship Bench provides sustainable community based psychological interventions that are evidence based, accessible and scalable. Community health workers are trained to provide basic Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with an emphasis on Problem Solving Therapy, activity scheduling, and peer-led group support at primary care level. The mission of the Friendship Bench is to get people out of depression by creating safe spaces and a sense of belonging in communities, to enhance mental wellbeing and improve peoples’ quality of life. Guided by the values of empathy and connection and anchored in over a decade of rigorous research, Friendship Bench has re-imagined the delivery of evidence-based mental healthcare.

Read more here:

Friendship Bench Zimbabwe Website (https://www.friendshipbenchzimbabwe.org/)

Effect of a Primary Care–Based Psychological Intervention on Symptoms of Common Mental Disorders in Zimbabwe (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2594719)

Applying the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to Optimize Implementation Strategies for the Friendship Bench Psychological Intervention in Zimbabwe (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43477-023-00093-4)

Using the RE-AIM framework to evaluate the implementation of scaling-up the Friendship Bench in Zimbabwe – a quantitative observational study (https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08767-9)

Adaptation of a Problem-solving Program (Friendship Bench) to Treat Common Mental Disorders Among People Living With HIV and AIDS and on Methadone Maintenance Treatment in Vietnam: Formative Study (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35802402/)