Mental Health Advocacy For Developing Countries

Mind Aid helps people with mental illness in developing countries get access to basic mental health care.

HELPLINES FOR 130+ COUNTRIES

MENTAL HEALTH TIPS

Photo by Robin Hammond/Panos

Over 270,000,000 people in developing countries have no mental health care.

Some countries have only one psychiatrist per million people.
No medications. No counselling. Some people with mental illness are actually kept in chains (#BreakTheChains).

Vikram Patel was in TIME’s 100 most influential people list in 2015. Watch his TED talk called “Mental Health for All by Involving All”.

Goals

Welcome to Mind Aid!

Mind Aid helps people with mental illness in developing countries so they can get access to basic mental health care. It was made by me, Matthew Dickson in 2018. (Find my best mental health tips here!)

It is the first website of its kind in the world, with all the groups working on the cause on one site! Here you can donate (go to "Donate") to nonprofits using models of basic mental health care that are low-cost, proven effective, and scalable!

Youth can be part of the next generation of leaders in global

mental health at www.GenerationMentalHealth.org!

A man with mental illness is chained to a tree

While receiving treatment from a native doctor, a patient is chained to a tree in the courtyard in Niger Delta, Nigeria. Patients are not given shelter: They say they are only fed once a day. October 2012 Photo by Robin Hammond/Panos

1-Aware

People are suffering needlessly.

The WHO estimates that there are 450 million people with mental health conditions in the world. Approximately 80% of them (or 360 million) live in developing countries, where as many as 75%-85% don't receive any mental health care. That's at least 270 million or as many as 306 million people who are suffering needlessly.

Some countries have only one psychiatrist per million people. They have no medications. No counselling. No support groups. Some people with mental illness are even kept in chains (#BreakTheChains). Tied to a tree or a bed or a log. Some are put in cages with hyenas and end up injured or killed. Not only do people have to suffer the horrible conditions of mental illness alone, they have these other assaults they have to suffer as well.

Fortunately there are organizations that are trying to help. A model they use is to go into a community and teach some of the members how to administer their own basic mental health care to those who need it. It is low-cost, proven effective and scalable. BasicNeeds US uses this model. The WHO uses a similar model called the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP), launched in 2008.

Vikram Patel is one of the world's leaders in global mental health. Watch his TED talk for more information, or read his Discover Magazine article. <BACK TO GOALS

DONATE

A man with mental illness lies in bed holding his head

The look of terror on this man's face captures the extreme despair of those caught in Africa's makeshift mental health "care" institutions. Photo by Robin Hammond/Panos

Imagine a world without mental illness.

What would it take?

Donate/Fundraise

1) Donate to or fundraise for these 10 nonprofits giving basic mental health care in developing countries directly on their websites:

www.cbmuk.org.uk, www.pih.org, www.basicneedsus.org, www.strongminds.org, www.afinemind.org, www.mindsfoundation.org, www.psychcorpsghana.com, basicneedsghana.org, basicneedskenya.org, and www.tryglobal.org.

You can also buy gifts of mental health support for kids suffering from war, conflict, or disasters at Plan Canada and World Vision Canada. UNICEF, OXFAM, International Medical Corps,

and Doctors Without Borders also give mental health support in many areas worldwide.

2) Or to help pay my expenses, you can also donate directly to me:

a) On my Patreon page (What's Patreon? Check out this Patreon example, "Sailing La Vagabonde" - they sailed Greta Thunberg across the Atlantic Ocean!)