IPT and Peer Support for Women in Uganda

Group interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-G) is a proven, simple and cost efficient community-based model to treat depression. Under the StrongMinds model, trained Mental Health Facilitators (MHF) lead IPT-G meetings using a structured model over a period of 12-16 weeks to help group members identify and understand the root causes and triggers of their depression, and then to formulate strategies to overcome those triggers. Since depression can be episodic and continue to recur throughout people’s lives, these newly acquired skills have both an immediate impact and a long-term preventive impact for the depressive sufferer.