Launching a new movement for mental health

Abstract

Despite the great attention western countries pay to the mind and human consciousness in philosophy and the arts, disturbances of mental health remain not only neglected but also deeply stigmatised across our societies. Viewed through a global lens, this marginalisation is only amplified still further. Yet the fragile—and utterly fragmented for the most disadvantaged—state of mental health services in many countries is not for the want of trying. Vikram Patel: promoting mental health in developing countriesIn the summer of 1993, Vikram Patel boarded a flight from London's Heathrow airport bound for Harare, Zimbabwe. A few hours later, stepping into the heat of an African afternoon, he began a 2-year post as a research psychiatrist at the University of Zimbabwe Medical School, an experience that would shape the trajectory of his future career. As Patel and his wife settled into the small flat that they had rented from the university, they began to fall in love with the country. Its physical beauty, the fervour of its political and economic discourse, and the quality of its cultural and academic life were exhilarating, Patel recalls. Full-Text PDF No health without mental healthAbout 14% of the global burden of disease has been attributed to neuropsychiatric disorders, mostly due to the chronically disabling nature of depression and other common mental disorders, alcohol-use and substance-use disorders, and psychoses. Such estimates have drawn attention to the importance of mental disorders for public health. However, because they stress the separate contributions of mental and physical disorders to disability and mortality, they might have entrenched the alienation of mental health from mainstream efforts to improve health and reduce poverty. Full-Text PDF Resources for mental health: scarcity, inequity, and inefficiencyResources for mental health include policy and infrastructure within countries, mental health services, community resources, human resources, and funding. We discuss here the general availability of these resources, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. Government spending on mental health in most of the relevant countries is far lower than is needed, based on the proportionate burden of mental disorders and the availability of cost-effective and affordable interventions. The poorest countries spend the lowest percentages of their overall health budgets on mental health. Full-Text PDF