CBMHP is a volunteer-driven system of outreach, home visits, training and referrals to raise awareness and meet mental health needs at community level.

The project has strong support from the Afghan government, which has enabled it to grow and become integrated into parts of the health system, and to shape mental health policy.

What Others Can Learn

CBMHP are skilled at adapting their model to meet changing needs, as a result of the volatile situation in Afghanistan. They exemplify the power of strong leadership, organisational flexibility and commitment to care in responding effectively to crises. This was particularly evident in their rapid adaptation during the Covid-19 pandemic, where they worked with government to integrate mental health services into covid-19 wards.

Partnership With Ember

Despite being well-established in the region and having collected large amounts of research data, CBMHP have lacked the capacity to conduct a rigorous evaluation of their work. They needed to build an evidence base in order to gain the visibility, partners and funding they need to expand.

Our work together has focused on building that evidence base, and starting to create the network links for disseminating it. Ember and CBMHP have co-designed and implemented an evaluation methodology to capture the impact of their work. This will lead to a published academic case study of their impact.