Value Based Counseling

A scalable psychosocial intervention for resource-poor settings

Abstract

The provision of basic mental health care is particularly challenging in low-income countries and when communities are affected by adversity such as natural disasters or wars. Mental health services in high-income countries may also be challenged if they need to adapt their health services with the aim of serving refugees effectively. The WHO recommends the scaling up of brief, basic, non-specialist-delivered versions of existing evidence-based psychological interventions which are compatible with the socio-cultural value system of the local provider or user in resource-poor settings. The psychosocial short-term intervention Value Based Counseling (VBC) employed by the NGO International Psychosocial Organisation (Ipso) is based on a theoretical approach that is strongly influenced by field experience with communities affected by adversity first gained in Afghanistan in 2004. Various aspects of the counseling approach make it suitable for upscaling. The salutogenetic approach saves the need to adapt diagnoses or to introduce them locally as a concept in mental health care. The brevity of the intervention is an advantage in resource-poor settings, and the basic structure can be used in a digital guided-self-help application that reduces the need for counselors.