Skip to main content

Facing a suicide crisis in his country, this African psychiatrist enlisted grandmothers to step in [WashingtonPost.com]

 

Dixon Chibanda, a Zimbabwean psychiatrist, tells the story of a young woman named Netsai whose husband kicked her out of their home when she gave birth to an albino girl. Suddenly homeless and without adequate food for herself or her baby, the young mother felt helpless and hopeless, and considered killing herself and her newborn child.

Seen one day crying and alone at a community shopping center, someone referred her to a local health clinic. In years past, there may have been little that primary care doctors there could do for a woman overwhelmed with suicidal thoughts. But these days, she was referred to a wooden park bench outside the clinic, where an older woman would sit with her and talk through her problems.



[For more of this story, written by Colby Itkowitz, go to https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.cd237d2295ed]

Add Comment

Comments (2)

Newest · Oldest · Popular

It's ironic that this article talks about how awesome a lay intervention is and then just moves back into the standard narrative, "but woe on us for the psychiatrist shortage."    um....if the lay intervention works, we don't need psychiatrists. 

So Vikram Patel's TED talk on Mental Health for All (while still a pretty disease model talk) it does breaks down the active ingredients of lay interventions:

De-Skill the process

Simlify the process -

Unpack the message - Use common language

Re-assign the roles of professionals (peripheral rather than central)

Take it to the streets

 

 

 

Post
Copyright Β© 2023, PACEsConnection. All rights reserved.
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×