Mental Health and Substance Use
Our work involves mental health promotion and the prevention of mental, neurological and substance use disorders. We support the expansion of access to affordable, quality care for everyone who needs it.
iSupport
iSupport is a self-help skills and training programme for carers of people with dementia. Worldwide, around 55 million people have dementia. Dementia causes significant psychological and emotional impact on families and carers. iSupport aims to prevent and/or decrease mental and physical health problems associated with caregiving and to improve the quality of life of those caring for people with dementia.
In five modules, iSupport teaches carers what dementia is and how to respond to common challenges of caregiving. The five modules are (i) introduction to dementia; (ii) being a caregiver; (iii) caring for me; (iv) providing everyday care; and (v) dealing with behaviour changes.
Carers can choose to work through all modules and lessons consecutively, or select the lessons that are the most relevant to their everyday lives. All lessons consist of brief readings, descriptive examples and several exercises. Carers receive feedback as they work through each exercise.
iSupport was conceptualized and developed as an online training programme. However, in areas of the world with limited internet bandwidth or low digital literacy, the iSupport hardcopy manual can be printed and used offline.
Q&A
iSupport Lite
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting breakdown of community-based services for people with dementia and their carers emphasized the importance of providing carers with accessible public health messages to reduce stress and improve their mental health and wellbeing. WHO’s iSupport Lite provides a series of practical support messages for carers of people with dementia extracted from iSupport.iSupport Lite offers easy-read tips for carers of people with dementia that can be drawn upon when, and as, needed. For carers who have already completed the comprehensive iSupport programme, iSupport Lite will act as a refresher, reinforcing previously acquired caregiving skills and knowledge. The iSupport Lite posters focus on the following topics:
- Reaching out to others for help
- Caring for myself
- Ensuring that the person with dementia continues to receive care
- Responding to changes in the person with dementia
- Providing everyday care to the person with dementia
- Communicating information to the person with dementia
mDementia
iSupport content has also been extracted to create a comprehensive message library for WHO’s mDementia, an mHealth toolkit on dementia risk reduction and carer support developed by BeHealthBeMobile (BHBM), a joint mHealth initiative between WHO and the International Telecommunications Union.
The module on carer support (mDementiaSupport) provides tailored support messages to address the physical and mental health impacts associated with caring for people with dementia that can be turned into a mobile and concise version of WHO’s iSupport using for example text messaging technology.
iSupport country adaptations
iSupport can be translated and adapted to national contexts and needs. As of August 2021, 31 country adaptations, using 27 different languages are ongoing. If you want to adapt iSupport for your country, please contact us at whodementia@who.int.
Multimedia
