What We Do

Our Core Focus

Mental Health Rights

1. Advancing Mental Health Rights

We champion the recognition of mental health as a fundamental human right. Our advocacy focuses on:

  • Reducing stigma and discrimination
  • Promoting inclusion in community and public life
  • Influencing county and national policies
  • Ensuring alignment with disability and health rights frameworks
  • Strengthening accountability in public service delivery

Through community dialogues, public forums, radio engagements, and global observances such as World Mental Health Day and World Bipolar Day, our mental health champions speak openly to challenge harmful narratives and promote acceptance.

Health Services Health Services

2. Expanding Access to Health Services

Access to quality, affordable mental health care remains a major barrier in Kenya. AMH-K works to close this gap by:

  • Training Community Health Promoters (CHPs) in mental health identification, referrals, and follow-ups.
  • Training Trainers of Trainers (CHP-ToTs) to cascade knowledge within community health units.
  • Supporting community-based screening, referrals, and home follow-ups.
  • Engaging Ministry of Health structures to integrate mental health into primary healthcare.

Our work strengthens existing public health systems, ensuring sustainability and alignment with Universal Health Coverage goals.

Member Empowerment

3. Empowering Members to Claim Their Rights

We believe empowerment is central to the realization of rights and dignity for persons living with mental health conditions.

AMH-K strengthens the capacity of its members to:

  • Support peers through structured support groups.
  • Understand and advocate for their legal and health rights.
  • Actively participate in community and public decision-making spaces.
  • Build secure livelihoods and enhance economic resilience through skills development, income-generating activities, and financial inclusion initiatives.

We also train caregivers in psychosocial support, strengthening family and community-based care systems while fostering resilience networks.

Through therapeutic craft and art-based interventions, we promote healing, self-expression, social inclusion, and pathways to economic empowerment.

4. Research & Evidence-Based Programming

In collaboration with Maastricht University and University of Amsterdam, departments of Masters in Global Health, AMH-Kenya in early to mid-2026 hosted and facilitated graduate students from the two universities to successfully conduct research in 4 topical areas namely:

  • “Empowered, but Still Constrained: Women’s Mental Wellbeing and Social Support in Kisumu County, Kenya” ( Vita Wolf-Maastricht University,2026)
  • “Navigating Mental Health Care Systems in Rural Kenya: Perspectives from Siaya County”( Giulia Parisi, Maastricht University,2026)
  • “Social Support as a Pathway to Well-Being: Experiences of Female Informal Caregivers in Community Mental Health Groups in Kisumu, Kenya” ( Emma Langlo, University of Amsterdam,2026)
  • “How do different actors in mental health care understand and practice the integration of traditional healing in mental health care in rural Kenya?” ( Paula Forster, Maastricht University,2026)