Ideas worth spreading

A new way to help young people with their mental health

1,873,122 views |

Tom Osborn |

TEDMonterey

• August 2021

TED Fellow Tom Osborn wants more young people to have access to the mental health support they need. With the Shamiri Institute, he and his team are training 18- to 22-year-olds to deliver evidence-based mental health care to their peers in Kenya -- which has only two psychiatrists for every million people. Hear how their community-first, youth-oriented model could become a template to help kids across the world lead successful, independent lives.

TED Fellow Tom Osborn wants more young people to have access to the mental health support they need. With the Shamiri Institute, he and his team are training 18- to 22-year-olds to deliver evidence-based mental health care to their peers in Kenya -- which has only two psychiatrists for every million people. Hear how their community-first, youth-oriented model could become a template to help kids across the world lead successful, independent lives.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Donate to Shamiri Institute to help to improve mental health for young people across Kenya.

Learn how Shamiri Institute is improving mental health for young people.

Follow Tom Osborn’s work through his newsletter and podcast.

About the speaker

Tom Osborn

Mental health innovator

See speaker profile

TED Fellow Tom Osborn is working to improve mental health for young people across Kenya.

Tom Osborn, Katherine E. Venturo-Conerly, Susana Arango G., et al. | JAMA Psychiatry, 2021 | Article

"Effect of Shamiri Layperson-provided Intervention for Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Kenya"

Gold-standard clinical trial shows that Shamiri’s for-youth and by-youth model reduced depression and anxiety symptoms amongst Kenyan youths.

Emmanuel Akyeampong, Allan G. Hill, Arthur Kleinman | Indiana University Press, 2015 | Book

The Culture of Mental Illness and Psychiatric Practice in Africa

A collection of essays on the experience and treatment mental health issues across Africa.

Arthur Kleinman | Free Press, 1991 | Book

Rethinking Psychiatry: From Cultural Category to Personal Experience

This seminal book shows that the prevalence and nature of mental health problems vary in different cultures — and that practitioners must move from mere acceptance of this reality to practically embedding these cultural and personal experience of disorders in caregiving.

Tom Osborn, Akash Wasil, John Weisz et al. | General Psychiatry, 2020 | Article

"Where is the global in global mental health? A call for inclusive multicultural collaboration"

This article calls for the active inclusion of local experts in global mental health research and for bottom-up approaches to intervention development.

Jessica Schleider, Michael Mullarkey and Anil Chacko | Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 2020 | Article

"Harnessing Wise Interventions to Advance the Potency and Reach of Youth Mental Health Services"

Review shows how simple psychological interventions (that are based on basic theory and research in social psychology) can improve a wide array of youth mental health outcomes.

Mathew Heaton | Ohio University Press, 2013 | Book

Black Skin, White Coats: Nigerian Psychiatrists, Decolonization, and the Globalization of Psychiatry

A history of psychiatry in Nigeria from the 1950s to 1980s, this book shows how pioneering African psychiatrists including T.A. Lambo worked to to replace racist and colonial psychiatric theories based on the inferiority of Africans with a broader, community-centered and universal model that focused on broader psychological similarities and emphasized the need for culture.

Tom Osborn, Akash Wasil, Katherine Venturo-Conerly, et al. | Behavior Therapy, 2019 | Article

"Clinical trial of a group intervention for adolescent depression and anxiety in Kenya"

Pilot clinical trial with youths with clinical depression and anxiety in Africa’s largest slum shows that the Shamiri intervention can reduce depression and anxiety symptoms while also improving academic performance and interpersonal relationships.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Donate to Shamiri Institute to help to improve mental health for young people across Kenya.

Learn how Shamiri Institute is improving mental health for young people.

Follow Tom Osborn’s work through his newsletter and podcast.