Using a Theory of Change to integrate digitalised lived experience stories into the Youth Friendship Bench, a psychological intervention for treating common mental disorders in young people in Zimbabwe

Background Advances in multimedia technologies' capabilities and accessibility have made it possible for stories to be digitally recorded, stored, and shared with a much wider audience. In mental health, digitalised lived experiences have been used to promote self-management and recovery during therapy, mental health awareness and literacy, and social relationships. In this paper, we describe the theory of change process we used to integrate The Human Aspect’s digitalised lived experiences (videos) into the Friendship Bench intervention. Results There was consensus from the stakeholders that digitalised lived experiences could be used as in-session and between-session resources for promoting the subjective psychological well-being of Friendship Bench clients. The stakeholders were of the same view that the digital videos be used as both an in-session and between-session intervention. Clients would be given the opportunity to choose the modality that works for them. It was agreed that the digitalised lived experiences stories could potentially be used to increase mental health awareness, improve mental health literacy, reduce mental health-related stigma and help facilitate recovery in Friendship Bench clients. Conclusions Theory of Change can be used to build consensus on how to integrate digitalised lived experiences into an existing evidence-based mental health intervention. There is now a need to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the integration as well as evaluate its effectiveness in reducing common mental disorders symptoms through an adequately powered study.