StrongMinds provides life-changing mental health services to low-income Africans using an innovative community based approach. Individuals living with mental illness in Africa have very limited access to treatment and endure both social stigmatization and economic deprivation. Group Interpersonal Therapy (G-IPT) is a proven and low-cost intervention which provides the opportunity to treat mental illnesses in low-income communities at scale for the first time in history. With support, StrongMinds will initially target the mental illness of depression in the DR Congo (DRC) using G-IPT. Our goal is to treat two million impoverished Africans by 2020. In the coming years, we will expand our services and treat additional mental illnesses in more countries.
The Need: Mental Health Disability in the Developing World
Mental illness is the most neglected health problem in the developing world. According to the WHO, mental illness accounts for 14% of global disease burden and afflicts approximately 150 million Africans, causing lost productivity, social exclusion and premature death on a continent-wide scale. Research shows that mental illness harms not just the afflicted individual, but it also negatively impacts their families and communities. Depression, specifically, is the most prevalent mental illness as well as the leading cause of disability in the world. The international development community largely ignores mental health issues and African governments spend less than 1% of their health budgets on mental health services. Today, there is only one psychiatrist per two million people in Africa (whereas in the US that figure is 200 psychiatrists) and, as a result, less than 5% of Africans have access to treatment.
The Model: Community Mental Health Services
The StrongMinds innovative approach trains and supports mental health facilitators to identify and treat individuals with mental illnesses within their own communities. StrongMinds will initially treat depression using G-IPT which is fundamentally small group talk-therapy which helps participants modify their behavior. It has an astounding 90% success rate in eliminating common depression disorders, and has been validated in Africa by researchers from Johns Hopkins and Columbia Universities. Research has also demonstrated that, in addition to being cured of depression, G-IPT group members also experience gains in productivity and health, and that their families and communities also become stronger, due to the social support system created through the G-IPT approach. Each mental health facilitator will treat approximately 250 patients annually.
The Organization and Impact
StrongMinds has the expertise and acumen to help millions of Africans. It was founded in 2013 by Sean Mayberry, an experienced development professional who has led and grown large-scale public health organizations in Africa and Asia. Presently, StrongMinds has developed a large, reliable network of colleagues in both the African development and the global mental health sectors. As a social enterprise, StrongMinds will achieve a social impact and grow into a sustainable business. The social impact is clear—improving the mental health of our African patients and their communities. In order to become sustainable, StrongMinds will generate revenue through the charging of patient fees. Low income patients will be charged a small fee of $1 – $3 for treatment. We will also provide mental health services with higher fees to more affluent segments of the population where we operate, based on that segment's ability to pay. These higher fees will generate profits which will be used to subsidize our core work with impoverished populations.
The Opportunity
The pilot phase of our work on depression will focus on the urban population of the DRC's capital city, Kinshasa, in late 2013. We are currently seeking individuals and organizations to support our important efforts of improving the mental health of two million impoverished Africans by 2020.
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