Mental disorders impose an enormous disease burden. On an average, 1 in 4 people suffer from  mental or substance use disorder at some point in their lives, and together with neurodegenerative conditions, they account for nearly 20% of the global burden of disease — greater than either cardiac ailments or cancer.

Growing evidence from low- and middle-income countries demonstrates that non-specialist providers, with appropriate training and supervision, can effectively deliver brief psychological treatments for depression. However, scaling up this evidence is hampered by reliance on face-to-face methods for training and supervision and quality assurance barriers.

EMPOWER seeks to address these challenges by building on growing research showing that digital training and supervision are acceptable, cheaper and potentially as effective as traditional approaches. EMPOWER converges two major strands of science: the effective implementation of brief psychological interventions by non-specialist providers and the effectiveness of digital learning and supervision methods. Sangath’s EMPOWER’s  mission is to empower anyone, anywhere to master the delivery of evidence-based psychological treatments and behavioural interventions via a digital learning environment.

In particular, EMPOWER  builds on the ongoing ESSENCE project being implemented in Madhya Pradesh. EMPOWER aims to build India’s mental health workforce by using digital platforms to enable front-line providers (such as community health workers and nurses) to learn brief psychological interventions, assess their competency and assure quality as they deliver these interventions at scale.