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

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).

About Me

Top 10 featured thought leader endorsed by LA Weekly

Hi, I'm Matthew Dickson! I'm a Canadian who helps people in developing countries get access to basic mental health care. I've suffered from mental health problems myself (schizophrenia).

My heart goes out to people in impoverished or war-torn countries who have to experience not only the torment of mental illness, but the traumas of poverty or horrors of war as well.

I bicycled across Canada when I was 20 in the middle of getting an engineering degree. I wanted to do more fun stuff like that - travel, explore.

But at 22 I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It was very difficult, but I want to point out the vast strength we all possess. Navy SEALs are taught that they are capable of 20x more than they think they are.

I believe it. I was called to do things that were "seemingly" impossible. But the point is, you can do them. They "seem" impossible, but they're not! Don't give up. Stay hopeful! You might amaze yourself!

It took awhile, but I successfully recovered from schizophrenia, and in 2023 I bicycled across Canada again, becoming the first person with schizophrenia to do so! Find my best mental health tips here!

Recovery is possible! Now I'm trying to help others going through mental illness, primarily in developing countries, as they have it worse than we do in developed countries.

Would you like to help?

Would you like to have me put on webinars for you (or anyone you know) for your audience, followers, subscribers, clients, employees, customers, etc., and share my messages of hope and inspiration for mental health?

Step 1: You send an email to your email list for my upcoming webinar on the agreed upon date.

Step 2: I show up and speak to your group on Zoom/Google Meet/Microsoft Teams on the specified date. You can 1) pay me from your budget, or 2) charge each attendee for a ticket (you could make money for yourself this way if your group is big enough).

Easy-peasy!

And your audience gets:

- great ways to improve their mental health, mindset, confidence, resilience

- inspiration and hope to keep fighting through their struggles

- how to help people with mental illness in developing countries

- I'll also talk about how I successfully recovered from schizophrenia and became the first person with schizophrenia to bicycle across Canada

I would love to talk with your group and share these messages!

Hire me to speak to your audience today! Questions? Don't be shy! Email me at: info@mindaid.ca

Find my best mental health tips here!

My Linktree links !

Buy Michelle Hammer's Schizophrenic.NYC clothing!

HIRE ME TO SPEAK

About

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

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) You can donate to or fundraise for these 10 charities giving basic mental health care in developing countries directly on their websites below, where you will get a charitable tax receipt:

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.