Even in good years, mental health services are extremely difficult for the families we serve to obtain, even as they deal with high levels of stress, anxiety and depression brought on by poverty. In 2020 the pandemic raised these levels to the breaking point, and we knew we had to act. We decided to become a part of a global mental health pilot project designed to bring mental health services to the poorest populations in the world.
Low-intensity Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – abbreviated LICBT – is a global movement designed to increase access to mental health care by means of training laypeople to deliver quality care in their communities for pennies on the dollar that such care normally costs. The movement began in Britain twenty years ago and has since spread to India, Gaza, Mexico and more. Studies find LICBT treatment outcomes to be on par with those achieved by traditional forms of care. In January 2021, the first-ever LICBT training program in the United States was launched by Uncommon Good together with an international team of LICBT experts. The program provided very high quality online training to low-income immigrant Latinx mothers. The first part of the training taught the students evidence-based cognitive and behavioral tools to address anxiety, stress and depression. The second half focused on training the women to become community mental health workers, known as promotoras, sharing the skills they’ve learned with others. Pre- and post-data was collected and analyzed to measure the efficacy of both the training program and the LICBT that the promotoras provide to their families and peers.
Two independent evaluations have been done to measure the effectiveness of the program. Both reported excellent results. The most recent report found that there was an 83% improvement in anxiety symptom scores; a 74% improvement in depression symptom scores; and a 72% improvement in stress scores. Well-being also significantly improved for these low-income clients, and was higher than norms for people with high perceived health status, high incomes, and good employment.
Click here to read our program reports:
Click here to hear an interview with one of Uncommon Good’s mental health promotoras.
Click here to watch an interview with Uncommon Good promotora Maria Elena and others about one of the techniques of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the shame attack
