The 'Grandma Benches' of Zimbabwe

All In The Mind

ABC listen

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Zimbabwe mental health has become a very big challenge, yet there are fewer than 20 psychiatrists in a population of over 14 million people. To help create accessible and effective care, psychiatrist Dr Dixon Chibanda began a talk-based cognitive behavioural therapy called Friendship Benches: training grandmothers to become health workers for their communities. Presenter Kim Chakanetsa hears the grandmothers are having astounding results, and recent clinical trials found they are more effective than conventional medical treatments. Dixon Chibanda is also moving his idea online and giving the world access to a virtual Friendship Bench.

A BBC World Service program produced for The Documentary

Part of the ABC's Your Mental Health initiative, in partnership with Lifeline and Kids Helpline, to support Australians during this challenging time.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an ABC podcast.
0:06.2	Hello, it's Sana Khadar from All in the Mind. So this week and next we'll be bringing
0:11.5	you programming as part of the ABC's Your Mental Health Initiative. It's all about focusing
0:17.0	on mental health, given the unprecedented challenges and stresses we've all faced
0:22.2	during the COVID-19 pandemic. This week's story takes us to another part of the world, and that's
0:28.4	Zimbabwe, where one in four people are estimated to suffer from depression or anxiety. And that was
0:35.2	before COVID-19 even hit. The really troubling thing, though, is there are
0:39.8	fewer than 20 psychiatrists in the whole country, which has a population of over 14 million people.
0:46.8	But a group of grandmothers have been stepping in to fill that gap. The BBC's Kim Chakanetsa
0:52.6	has this story of a unique program started by one Zimbabwe
0:56.6	and psychiatrist who's enlisted the help of some 700 grandmothers to make mental health care
1:02.0	more affordable and accessible.
1:08.0	On a small bench in Zimbabwe's capital Harare,
1:11.9	two women are in the middle of a conversation.
1:16.0	The older woman is called Lucy Angabu,
1:19.0	and she is asking Emily, the younger woman,
1:21.6	how her plans to fund her vegetable business are going,
1:24.2	and whether Emily is feeling a little less unhappy today.
1:29.5	This wooden bench they are sitting on, out in the open, is known as the Friendship Bench.
1:35.7	They are 250 benches in Zimbabwe in total, and they've become an innovative and highly successful
1:42.2	way to offer an ear to those who are struggling with their mental health.
1:46.4	By making therapy accessible, they are helping solve not just Zimbabwe's, but the mental health crisis around the world.
	...

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