About This Project

Scale the WHO's proven Thinking Healthy Programme (THP) and similar task-sharing interventions globally through a structured lay counsellor training and deployment system. Evidence base: THP delivered by community health workers achieves 70-80% of the clinical outcomes of specialist therapy for depression and anxiety at 1/10th the cost — proven in Pakistan, India, Zimbabwe, and Peru. The proposal has four components: (1) Global Lay Mental Health Counsellor Certification: WHO establishes a standardized 6-week training curriculum and certification for community lay counsellors delivering brief psychological interventions (BPI). Certification is recognized in national health systems of participating countries. (2) 500,000 Counsellor Deployment Fund: A $3B fund (co-financed by WHO, World Bank, and G20 bilateral aid) finances salaries and supervision for 500,000 lay counsellors in LMICs over 5 years — reaching an estimated 50M people annually. (3) Digital supervision infrastructure: A mobile platform enabling lay counsellors to receive real-time supervision from remote specialists, flag clinical risk, and access decision-support tools — making high-quality supervision feasible at a 1:50 supervisor-to-counsellor ratio. (4) Regulatory fast-track: Model legislation allowing lay counsellor practice within defined scope, developed with WHO and offered to member states as a ready-to-adopt framework.

Timeline