Friendship Bench for Women Who Use Methamphetamine in Vietnam

"The Friendship Bench model comprises 6 weekly, individual sessions with trained peer workers in addition to the usual care. Peer workers will help participants identify problems, outline potential solutions, and implement selected solutions.~The adaptation of Friendship Bench for Vietnamese methadone patients made revisions, such as removing the 'Belief in supernatural powers' section, replacing the Shona Symptom Questionnaire with DASS-21, and adding meth use. But this adaptation removed women-focused content on pregnancy and postpartum depression that we plan to include."

Usual care includes monthly check-ups by peer workers, referral to hospital-based psychiatric services or other available mental health services if needed. This usual care might surpass standard psychiatric care in other provinces given that peer workers in Haiphong have been well trained on case management skills.