General Services - mHub Africa | The Mental Health Hub

1. Awareness, promotion, and prevention workshops
mHub offers custom on-demand workshops depending on the priority needs of your organization. Our practical and interactive workshops are available onsite or virtually. If you have a special request, please contact us to discuss the topic further. Typical topics include the following:
- Coping with – burnout, depression, grief, or PTSD
- Cultivating mental resilience and emotional intelligence
- Effective communication
- Family relationships and parenting
- Healthy work-life balance
- Mental health and wellbeing awareness
- Mindfulness and self-compassion
- Positive thinking
- Self-care principles and practices
- Stress and anxiety management
2. First Aid for Mental Health training
Many of us have taken a First Aid course before. First Aid training typically gives everyday people the knowledge and skills to respond to a medical emergency until more qualified help arrives. In the same way, First Aid for Mental Health teaches you how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Not only does the training increase the amount and type of support provided to people in need – it also improves mental health in the participants as they develop core self-care and resilience competencies. Everybody knows somebody who has experienced mental health difficulties. Hence, all of us need the personal competencies to offer first aid for mental health and wellbeing. What’s more, countries in Africa face limited resources and a severe shortage of mental health professionals. In order to bridge this gap, the development of an army of laypersons with core competencies to help someone with a mental health or substance use challenge is absolutely crucial. Peer support provides an additional layer of support at all layers of healthcare, where people use their own experiences to help each other – by sharing basic knowledge, providing emotional support, creating opportunities for social interaction, offering simple and practical help, or engaging in advocacy and awareness raising. mHub’s First Aid for Employee Mental Health training was designed for all people and organizations that make up a community – and we believe that a workplace meets the definition of a community. For the wellbeing of the community and the resilience of their businesses, leaders should be equipped with the knowledge and competencies essential to provide immediate assistance and care to a colleague experiencing a mental health problem in a way that empowers the employee, promotes recovery, prevents the condition from getting worse, and preserves life. This training empowers managers to recognize and respond to staff experiencing emotional distress, builds interpersonal communication and active listening skills, fosters better understanding of how job stressors affect mental health and can be managed, and promotes a wellbeing culture in the workplace.
3. Individual coaching, counseling, therapy, and screening
mHub provides a confidential, safe, and professional space for individuals looking to book counseling or coaching appointments. Sessions are available in-person at the mHub clinic in Kigali. Alternatively, we regularly offer counseling online via either Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Available languages include English, French, Kinyarwanda, and Swahili. Screening for common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety is available on our online platform and is fully confidential. In 21 simple questions, it explores one’s current wellbeing when it comes to depression, anxiety, and stress. After completion (it only takes 10 minutes), an mHub counselor will evaluate the individual results and send you a fully confidential message, explaining the scores and, if applicable, offering ideas and tools for how to improve individual wellbeing.
4. Organization-wide wellbeing audit
Our wellbeing audit is a thorough examination of the psychosocial risks in the workplace, conducted as a collaborative project between your organization and mHub. The objectives of the wellbeing audit are to:
- Determine the general wellbeing index of individuals in your organization;
- Identify the different types of psychosocial risk factors at your workplace;
- Explore the views of managers and senior executives;
- Interpret the findings and explain the consequences for the employees and your organization; and
- Formulate recommendations for priority interventions and wellbeing activities.
5. Outdoor wellbeing retreats
Escape the hustle and bustle of daily life and embark on a holistic journey to rejuvenate your mind, body, and spirit with our outdoor wellbeing retreats. Our retreats offer a sanctuary of peace and self-discovery in nature, guided by experienced wellness coaches who nurture your mental wellbeing through mindfulness practices, meditation, and invigorating activities. Here, your teams can embark on a path to greater mental clarity, balance, and personal wellness.
6. Psychosocial support for humanitarian workers and NGO staff
In response to the vital importance of awareness and prevention, mHub works with development partners and civil society organizations in Africa to provide a variety of awareness and prevention programs and services. Mental health and psychosocial support for humanitarian workers and NGO staff is not a luxury; it is essential for organizations to function sustainably and effectively. Studies demonstrate that substantial numbers of humanitarians experience poor health and great risk of burnout. They suffer from various forms of stress – physical, emotional, mental, interpersonal, and spiritual. mHub’s team can provide a range of regular or on-demand psychosocial support services, from situation assessments to the provision of training for frontline staff (such as coping with compassion fatigue, stress management, cultivating resilience, communication, setting boundaries, and work-life balance), the provision of training for managers (such as managing staff wellbeing, communication, psychosocial and trauma-informed approaches to management, and conflict management), or the provision of direct support services to staff (such as individual and/or group consultations and psychosocial interventions).
7. School-based mental health programs
One of our priority focus areas, for the time being primarily in Rwanda, is mental health in the schools. Our goal is to develop safe environments where students, teachers, and staff have open and trauma-informed conversations about mental health and wellbeing and have the competencies to provide first aid for mental health.
8. Stress management training
Over the last few years, we have seen the escalating challenges posed by stress to staff wellbeing, productivity, and teamwork. mHub’s stress prevention and management workshop series support staff by focusing on the core skills and competencies. Stress management training supports working adults to better cope with everyday stress in the workplace and at home. Our training is designed to prevent existing wellbeing problems from getting worse, including preventing burnout. The interactive workshops can help your employees and managers deal with changes and challenges in healthier ways, through practicing self-care tools and learning stress management skills and competencies. The workshop series typically include the following sessions:
- Coping with depression, anxiety, trauma, and chronic stress
- Stress management to prevent burnout
- Healthy work-life balance to prevent burnout
- Cultivating mental and emotional resilience
Specific training goals and learning outcomes in this workshop series include the following:
- To promote the motivation for health-conscious behavior and self-care practices;
- To acquire strategies to cope with psychological tension; and
- To promote the ability to manage stress at the workplace.
9. Team building events
Our team building events are designed to foster better teamwork, improved interpersonal communication, and problem-solving skills. They create a harmonious and effective work environment while prioritizing the wellbeing of a team. This helps to increase interconnectedness among colleagues, gives them opportunities to discover their individual strengths and weaknesses, and offers open and safe spaces to reflect on their shared challenges and find solutions together.
10. Trauma Coach training
Did you know that trauma is recognized as a major public health problem and that most people in the world are survivors of stress or traumatic experiences? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 70% of people have experienced a traumatic event, with the average person experiencing three such events in their lifetime. Trauma happens to us, our friends, our families, and our neighbors. It can have lasting effects, particularly if untreated. Many people will experience a traumatic event at some point in their lives. Yet, there is a global shortage of those able to provide informed support services, particularly those with training in trauma. mHub’s Trauma Coach training – based on the curriculum of the Orenda Project – enables laypersons to provide immediate assistance and care to someone experiencing trauma in a way that empowers the individual, promotes recovery, prevents the condition from getting worse, and preserves life.
11. Trauma-Informed Practice training
Trauma and adversity are growing public health concerns that impact all of us. This training is for individuals and organizations looking for the tools to help people heal from trauma and to avoid retraumatizing those seeking help. Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP) training helps your organization become trauma-informed and focuses on three trauma approach levels: (1) a trauma-informed organization is aware of the prevalence and impact of trauma and engages in universal precaution for re-traumatization; (2) a trauma-sensitive organization deliberately considers all levels of operation, interactions, policies, and procedures and adjusts in a responsive and sensitive way to trauma histories; and (3) a trauma-specific organization offers evidence-based trauma treatment interventions to treat and help individuals heal from trauma. TIP training helps organizations plan for, implement, and sustain Trauma-Informed Care (TIC). This is about using the five guiding values – safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment – to build resilience, inclusion, equity, healing, and growth.
12. Wellness classes
Studies have demonstrated that wellness classes help reduce anxiety and depression, elevate your mood, increase blood circulation to the brain, and reduce stress. As a result, wellness classes play an important role in many of mHub’s programs. They are available onsite (currently mainly in Rwanda) as well as virtually. Here are some of our regularly offered wellness classes:
- Body scan meditation
- Breath-awareness meditation
- Breath-body-mind techniques
- Deep breathing relaxation
- Mindfulness exercises
- Practicing positive thinking
- Practicing self-compassion
- Restorative stretching
- Stress-release practices
- Yoga