Building local capacity for trauma-focused mental health services through an intensive training model
The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) trains refugees as peer counselors in Guinea and Sierra Leone. The refugees provide mental health services to others who have suffered torture and war trauma, increasing the number of people CVT can serve and creating a cadre of qualified mental health paraprofessionals in communities that had previously had no mental health services. Paraprofessionals perform many of the tasks of professionals, but within a system of supervision.
For more information on this tactic, read our in-depth case study.