Zimbabwe’s Friendship Bench Project: Making Mental Healthcare Accessible

In low-income countries, the lack of skilled medical personnel and infrastructure - known as the mental health treatment gap - is a huge issue. Trusting his insight, Dr. Chibanda developed a program using elderly Zimbabwean women, known as "Grandmothers," to deliver, on wooden benches under trees, evidence-based talk and cognitive behavioral therapy, specifically problem-solving therapy, to those needing help.