To end the suffering of mentally ill people in the developing world.

BasicNeeds works to bring about a lasting change in the lives of mentally ill people around the world. Mental illness is a problem that is often ignored and this is especially the case in the poorest countries in the world. With an often complete lack of locally available, free mental health care, desperately poor mentally ill people stand little hope of recovery. Working with mentally ill people, rather than just for them, we have built an innovative approach to the problem that tackles mentally ill peoples' poverty, as well as their illness. Using the Model for Mental Health and Development, we help mentally ill people start to earn a living after they have been given access to regular, community-based treatment. We also work with communities to overcome stigma and abuse. At the heart of our work is consultation with mentally ill people and the drive to work with them to help them solve their problems. So far we have helped transform the lives of tens of thousands of mentally ill people.

Empowerment
Livelihoods
Research
Emergenncies
Consulting
International Training