Our little town of Chestertown has a special connection with Lusaka, Zambia in Central Africa. Local nonprofit CoLaborers International and the Rotary Club of Chestertown teamed up with Zambian leaders to do something compassionate, powerful, and life-saving.
The struggle with substance use is something shared in every community around the world. Access to adequate care, however, is still hard to attain in many countries.
Melissa Stuebing (formerly a drug and alcohol counselor at Kent County Crisis Beds) developed a unique drug and alcohol group counseling manual that uses expressive arts rooted in Zambian culture as a metaphor for self-expression, treatment, and healing. There are other cultural versions too. Her nonprofit, CoLaborers International, assists locally-led organizations in Zambia (and elsewhere) helping homeless youth. At the time, she developed this curriculum in response to a need for literacy-free treatment that could be offered at a community level with lay leadership. This was first field tested at Zambian community center, Chisomo.
After years of field testing and studies, she shared results with the Ministry of Health in Zambia. They endorsed a training in it for professionals across the country, which The Rotary Club of Chestertown funded through a district grant.
The result was training 100 Zambian professionals to take this drug and alcohol curriculum into their own communities. Trainers Melissa, Hjordis, Ally, Jason, and Chipego were joined by local Mike Peck (Whitsitt Center) who served 4 months prior in Zambia with CoLaborers International. Local David White from the Chestertown Rotary also joined in the experience, connecting with Zambian leaders in the Rotary of Lusaka Central.
Melissa Stuebing (Washington College alum, CoLaborers International), Hjordis Lorenz (Washington College alum, Oxford University), Lauren Littlefield (Washington College), Chipego “Chipo” Nambeye (CoLaborers Zambia), and Gabriel Lungu (Ministry of Health) authored a manuscript together on the training and the 6 month study to follow. This was very recently published open-access in Addictive Behaviors Reports – https://doi.org/10.1016/j.abrep.2022.100424
It is amazing to see authorship from the US, UK, and Zambia join hands together in this shared initiative.
The study found training professionals in the curriculum changed their views on the value of treating substance users. “The training put the counselor in the position of the client. People were able to talk about their struggles were able to open up about things that they wouldn’t really talk about in a normal environment” says Chipo.
The study then followed Zambian-led implementation of the curriculum as it brought addiction treatment into their own communities for 6 months, finding decreases in client substance use frequency and increases in client participation and motivation.
The story of these authors continues together.
Chipo and Gabriel continue to be advocates for de-stigmatizing mental health and bringing real care to youth in Zambia. Chipo still offers trainings in Zambia.“It’s okay not to feel okay! Gather yourself and seek help. No matter how hard the situation may be, there is always help!” says Gabriel.
Long-time friends and research partners Hjordis and Melissa are embarking on a new study together of the Kenyan version of the curriculum. Lauren continues inspiring the next generation of psychology researchers at Washington College.
There are upcoming online trainings in the US version, endorsed for 4 CEs from MD Board of Pro. Counselors and Therapists. For more information on this curriculum and the study, check out CoLaborers.com/ExpressiveArts
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