Strangers, Sidewalks and Folding Chairs Are One Solution for the Loneliness Epidemic

Sometimes just having someone to talk to can help those who are suffering from depression. The Friendship Bench program in NYC borrows an idea from Harare, Zimbabwe, where healthcare workers—affectionately called Grannies—sit and consult with patients on benches outside of healthcare clinics. The Grannies help people discuss their issues and have had a measurably positive impact on those they’ve reached. In New York, the Friendship Benches connect individuals to peer mentors willing to listen across the city.

Healing trauma has never been an easy process but programs like Healing Hurt People help to promote recovery in traumatized, angry young men. This program, in partnership with local medical services, aims to provide therapy in place of violence, which would only cause more trauma down the road. Those who stick with the program have found great success in overcoming their pasts.

Mental health care is often overlooked in Zimbabwe even though depression is prevalent. The Friendship Bench Project involves benches located by clinics where individuals can come speak to older female counselors about their struggles.

Healing Hurt People (HHP), the program that helped save his life, now employs men like Jermaine McCorey - men who used to be a part of a violent life on the streets of Philadelphia - to reach out to boys and young men in the emergency department and help get them through empathy and personalized support. HHP's goal is to help young people recognize the role trauma has played in shaping their lives, to respect and honor their experience and to help them avoid fueling the cycle of violence.

Different programs in various nations are training ordinary people and creating community groups to effectively satisfy the mental health needs of their communities. In many of these regions, "treatment gaps" – where there are little to no mental health treatment plans or resources – exist, but this new informal infrastructure helps to fill that.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) works with asylum seekers in Matamoros to address mental health issues while they wait for decisions in their U.S. immigration cases. MSF provides one-on-one and group counseling with a therapist trained to address the issues asylum seekers face. To build trust and decrease the stigma surrounding mental health and seeking treatment, MSF holds daily talks in the camp. Since kids show symptoms of trauma differently, MSF created mental health treatment in the form of interactive games and activities. MSF reports positive outcomes for the 3,100 mental health sessions held in 2020.

The Alternatives to Violence Project, an international nonprofit, provides workshops around conflict resolution, personal growth, and other social skills to people experiencing incarceration. While a large-scale organization, individual prisons have the agency to implement the workshops. In Washington’s Pierce county, they tailor their workshops for veterans experiencing incarceration, teaching community-building, self-reflection, listening, and de-programming aggression and violence.

In Japan, an organization called New Start employs women that help men who are withdrawn from society. These men, called hikikomori, are often experiencing mental health issues, and cannot leave their homes. That’s where New Start’s rent-a-sister program comes in. These women spend months, sometimes years, with these men, building trust, giving advice, and adjust to society. The organization also provide halfway houses for these men, with 80% successfully re-entering society as independent individuals.

A unique issue in Japan is that of the “Hikikomori” – men who have totally withdrawn from society, often as a response to bullying, depression, or trauma. The NGO, New Start, offers a “rental sister” program, which provide the Hikikomori with an older female mentor to interact with and guide them toward more independent lives. Along the way, the hope is that they’ll build trusting relationships and practice social engagement.

The Bridge Peer Counseling Center provides 24/7, free, anonymous counseling to students, by students. The student counselors are trained in crisis response and volunteer over 30 hours each week to keep the center running, ensuring mental health support is always accessible on campus.