YouBelong Uganda Marks 10 years of advancing Community Centered Mental Health Care

YouBelong Uganda Marks 10 years of advancing Community Centered Mental Health Care

Kampala, Uganda | April 2026 – YouBelong Uganda celebrates a decade of strengthening community mental health care in Uganda.

YouBelong Uganda is proud to mark 10 years of pioneering work in strengthening community‑based mental health care in Uganda. Founded in 2016, the organisation has spent the past decade advancing a sustainable approach to mental health, one that places dignity, family, and belonging at the centre of recovery.

Established with a shared vision from its founders, Monsignor David Cappo and Dr. Brian B. Mutamba, YouBelong Uganda set out to challenge the over‑reliance on overcrowded and under‑resourced mental institutions across sub‑Saharan Africa. From the beginning, the organisation has advocated for a system where hospitals provide high‑quality short‑term acute care, while long‑term recovery is supported by empowered families and communities.

At the heart of YouBelong Uganda’s work is a simple but powerful belief; recovery thrives where people belong. By reconnecting individuals living with mental illness to their families and communities, the organisation works to reduce stigma, restore dignity, and strengthen long‑term recovery beyond institutional settings.

YouBelong Uganda’s most impactful innovation is the YouBelongHOME program. This program focuses on decongesting and deinstitutionalizing Uganda’s national mental hospital by supporting the safe and sustainable reintegration of persons living with mental illness into their families and communities. Over the past ten years, the program has successfully reintegrated more than 1,000 individuals, while also providing family psychoeducation that equips caregivers with the knowledge and skills needed to support recovery. By reinforcing the vital role of families in mental health care, the YouBelongHOME program has demonstrated that family‑centred care significantly reduces relapse rates and helps to challenge stigma surrounding mental illness at both family and community levels.

Youth engagement has also been a central pillar of YouBelong Uganda’s journey. Through Youth Consultative Groups, the organisation actively works with young people who have lived experience of mental health conditions. Using a co‑production approach, these young people contribute to program design and learning processes, ensuring that our programs are shaped by real experiences and voices of recovery.

In schools, YouBelong Uganda continues to create safe and nurturing learning environments through the Powerful Minds programme. This innovative approach recognises schools as vital communities for wellbeing, where children’s mental and emotional development forms the foundation of education. By fostering collaboration between students, families, communities, and healthcare centres, the programme empowers children and adolescents to become active participants in their own wellbeing.

YouBelong’s work is made possible by a dedicated multidisciplinary team of social workers, community mental health nurses, occupational therapists, psychiatric clinical officers and support staff. Their collaborative and innovative work reflects YouBelong Uganda’s commitment to system‑wide transformation rooted in community care.

As YouBelong Uganda looks to the future, the organisation recognises that the coming years are critical for mental health reform in Uganda. With gratitude to our partners, communities, and supporters, YouBelong Uganda remains committed to building a mental health system where recovery happens at home, within families, and in communities.