Many countries have made significant strides in legislating mental health reform and in moving toward de-institutionalization.
#The year one challenge for men review series#
A series of articles in World Psychiatry describe the successes and challenges that regions around the world have faced in integrating community mental health services in primary care. In an effort to expand the coverage of mental health services, countries around the world have been moving towards community mental health care. In this context, people with severe mental illnesses who live far from a centralized treatment facility-the majority of the population in most LMICs-are often unable to access care, and people with common mental disorders such as major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and substance use disorders, persons who collectively account for more than half of the total GMH burden globally, are most often left untreated. Services for mental health diagnosis, treatment, and referral that are based in primary care or community health centers are generally lacking. Until recently, in most LMICs and low-resource settings within high-income countries (HICs), mental disorders have typically been diagnosed and treated in centralized psychiatric hospitals or clinics. Integrating Treatment of Common Mental Disorders in Primary Care We then discuss four priority areas of focus for future GMH research to address the mental health gap. In this review, we outline the current state of research addressing mental health within health systems in LMICs. Implementation research is now required to understand how best to integrate and sustain mental health services within health systems and other contexts of care.
Interrelated challenges that contribute to these deficiencies and also exacerbate the GMH treatment gap include shortages of mental health workers, lack of research capacity, stigmatization of mental illness, and the siloing of mental health services apart from other health services for physical health conditions.Ĭapacity building for mental health services and research in LMICs represents an urgent need that has so far failed to attract sufficient attention and funding. ĭespite the existence of these guidelines, dissemination and implementation of EBPs and translation of scientific findings into health policy have been lagging in LMICs. The guidelines are meant to be used by non-specialized health care providers after adaptation for national and local needs. The mhGAP-IG comprises straightforward, user-friendly, diagnosis-specific clinical guidelines for providing evidence-based practices (EBPs). To help decrease the global mental health (GMH) treatment gap, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the Mental Health Gap Action Programme Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG) through a systematic review of evidence followed by an international participatory consultative process.
Furthermore, studies on the cost-effectiveness of mental health treatments increasingly highlight the economic value of preventing and treating mental disorders in these settings.
Trials conducted in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have demonstrated the efficacy and effectiveness of both psycho-pharmacological treatment and evidence-based psychotherapies for treating mental disorders. Paradoxically, this gap exists at a time when evidence-based mental health interventions have been found to be effective in limited resource environments. This documented global burden of disease associated with mental disorders is compounded by the widening “mental health treatment gap” where, worldwide, more than 70% of persons who need mental health services lack access to care. Mental and substance use disorders are now the leading cause of disability worldwide.
0 kommentar(er)
