156. Training Grandmothers to Treat Depression with Dr Dixon Chibanda

In this episode, we speak with Dr Dixon Chibanda, a psychiatrist and professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He shares how losing a patient to suicide drove him towards community-based mental health care in Zimbabwe. Chibanda discusses the Friendship Bench, a model he built around grandmothers as custodians of local culture, and how listening and storytelling became its foundation. He explores how the approach was proven through research, its expansion across the world, and why he sees grandmothers, who also gain from the intergenerational connection, as the gold standard for this kind of care.

Links

Dr Dixon Chibanda

The Friendship Bench

Friendship Bench in a Box

The Friendship Bench Book

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