Most people who experience mental health conditions struggle to access effective care and eventually remain untreated. Combined with the high prevalence of mental health conditions in countries across the globe, this treatment gap emphasises the need to diversify and scale up options for care. Evidence-based psychological interventions can help to increase access to mental health support and contribute to the progression towards universal health coverage.  

The WHO’s Psychological Interventions Implementation manual provides practical guidance on how to implement evidence-based psychological interventions for adults, youngsters and children. These interventions can be integrated to a wide range of existing services, including health, social, protection and education. 

Click here to access the full manual. 

The manual focuses on interventions that will be delivered by trained and supervised non-specialists, rather than on conventional psychotherapy, which requires trained professionals and is conducted in-person. This new approach is backed up by significant evidence proving that shorter, manualised interventions can also be efficiently delivered by non-specialists, either face-to-face or remotely. Moreover, evidence-based psychological intervention manuals are informed by and make use of techniques from established psychological treatments, including behavioural activation, stress management, problem-solving therapy, and others.   

In the past 20 years, many psychological intervention manuals have proven to work with different target populations and in different contexts, including low- and middle-income countries, and they are considered easier to scale. Therefore, the next natural step is to increase their actual availability, reach and impact so that they can be used for the benefit of more and more people experiencing mental health conditions.  

In particular, the WHO manual outlines five key steps for implementing evidence-based psychological interventions within an existing service:  

• make an implementation plan by deciding which interventions will be provided, why, where, how and when.  

• adapt intervention materials for use in the local context, ensuring they are accurately translated and locally relevant. 

• equip providers with the right skills through competency-based training and ensure ongoing support and supervision.  

• identify, assess and support potential beneficiaries.  

• monitor and evaluate the effectiveness, acceptability, feasibility and fidelity of psychological interventions.