Abstract
Mental health services in Cambodia required rebuilding in their entirety after their destruction during conflict in the 1970s. During the late 1990s there was rapid growth and development of professional mental health training and education. Currently, basic mental healthcare is available primarily in urban areas and is provided by a mixture of government, non-government and private services. Despite the initial rapid growth of services and the development of a national mental health strategy in 2010, significant challenges remain in achieving an acceptable, standardised level of mental healthcare nationally.
Highlights
Mental health services in Cambodia required rebuilding in their entirety after their destruction during conflict in the 1970s
The long-lasting effects of genocide and war compound the challenge of rebuilding the country, as complex trauma continues to affect the mental well-being of the people of Cambodia.[3,7]
The rapid growth in mental health services through international funding in the late 1990s led to government mental health clinics operating in 95% of provinces and three in-patient psychiatry units were available for emergency assessments by 2007.9 in 2010 this had reduced to two in-patient psychiatry units providing a total of 14 beds,[11] and 60% of the referral hospitals and 2% of community health centres provided mental health services.[11]
Summary
During the Khmer Rouge period the mental health services in their entirety were destroyed, leaving no psychiatrists or other trained mental health professionals.[5,6,9,10] When the Paris Peace Agreement was signed in 1991, marking the official end of the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. Cambodia had to completely rebuild the health, education and community services.[4,5,7] The long-lasting effects of genocide and war compound the challenge of rebuilding the country, as complex trauma continues to affect the mental well-being of the people of Cambodia.[3,7] Available epidemiological data show a high prevalence of substance misuse, neurological and mental disorders compared with normative populations.[4,7,8]
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