With societies all over the globe suffering from epidemics of loneliness, depression, and mental illness, the celebrated psychiatrist Dr. Dixon Chibanda’s new book The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution, offers a remarkably innovative method for delivering one of the most effective cures available: simple human connection.

As one of only five psychiatrists in all of Zimbabwe, Chibanda recognized, after losing a patient to suicide, that millions in his community were suffering from kufungisisa - the local word closest to depression (literally, “thinking too much” in Shona), substance abuse, and mental illness with no hope of receiving care. He realized that the only way to narrow this gap was to leverage existing resources in the community, like the loving presence of grandmothers.

While not everyone can see a mental health professional, most people have access to a vital untapped resource: the care, compassion, empathy, and wisdom of grandmothers the unsung heroines of the world,” Chibanda writes. “Grandmothers weave together the fabric of community so that people’s fears, their shame, and their loneliness might be alleviated, so that they might realize the burdens of life are never meant to be carried alone.”

Chibanda partnered with fourteen strong-willed grandmothers to pioneer a community ­based mental health initiative called The Friendship Bench program. Since 2006, Chibanda and his team have trained over 3,000 grandmothers in evidence-based talk therapy, which they deliver for free in more than 500 communities in Zimbabwe and beyond while sitting on designated Friendship Benches in public spaces like clinics or community centers. The success of the project has inspired a global movement, with Friendship Bench initiatives in Kenya, Vietnam, El Salvador, New York, New Orleans, and beyond, bringing accessible mental healthcare to diverse communities.

The Friendship Bench is more than Chibanda’s story - it’s a powerful testament to how simple acts of connection can bridge the deepest divides and transform lives. Chibanda empowers readers to facilitate transformative moments for healing by reaching out to those in their communities who are struggling and includes access to a practical DIY toolkit with step-by-step guidance for creating a Friendship Bench in their own communities.

“The evidence that the model works is there for all to see,” Chibanda writes, but what I hope to convey in this book is the reason why: we are each crucially important parts of a larger human story, and when we are gently, lovingly brought back into the fold of our community, we experience healing.”

About the Author: Dixon Chibanda, MD, is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Zimbabwe and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and director of the African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI). His “Why I Train Grandmothers to Treat Depression,” TED talk has been viewed over 3.2 million times and the Friendship Bench project he founded has been featured in major media like The PBS News Hour, New York Times, LA Times, BBC World Service, and more. Visit him online at https://www:dixonchibanda.com and http://www.friendshipbench.org.

June Book Reviews

    

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