Mental health issues are increasing. It is said that one in six people in employment are now experiencing mental health problems.
10 years ago, in Zimbabwe, Professor Dixon Chibanda started a new approach to addressing some of the more common mental disorders by introducing the Friendship Bench project.
Traditionally in Zimbabwe grandmothers served as the pillars of wisdom and emotional support in their communities. But in the face of urbanisation, the disintegration of close-knit extended families and the increasing reliance on modern technology, this practice was largely forgotten. However, with the increasing recognition of mental health needs in today’s society Dr (as he was then) Chibanda felt this approach needed to be reintroduced in a modern way and it is proving to be incredibly valuable. Following the suicide of one of his patients who was unable to afford the bus fare to reach his clinic, Chibanda said “I realized that I needed to have a stronger presence in the community.” He also said “Grandmothers are the custodians of local culture and wisdom. They are rooted in their communities. They don’t leave, and in addition, they have an amazing ability to use what we call ‘expressed empathy’… to make people feel respected and understood.”
14 grandmothers were recruited and trained in the neighbourhood near the hospital where Chibanda worked in Harare. Benches were then set up in discreet community spaces, and one of the grandmothers sat there, ready to listen and engage in a one-to-one conversation if invited to.
Last year Professor Chibanda won a $150,000 prize from the McNulty Foundation for revolutionising mental health care following the concept being introduced in Vietnam, Botswana, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania and the United States of America is drawing inspiration from it to help address risk factors such as social isolation.
By 2023 the number of trained grandmothers and Friendship benches had passed 2,000 in Zimbabwe. Siridzayi Dzukwa, one of the grandmothers said “People are no longer ashamed or afraid of openly stopping us on the streets and ask to talk to us. Mental health is no longer something to be ashamed of.”