The current state of mental healthcare in Bangladesh: part 1 - an updated country profile.

M Tasdik Hasan,Helal Uddin Ahmed,Saima Wazed Hossain,Tasnim Anwar,Nazish Arman,Enryka Christopher,Sahadat Hossain,Kamrun Nahar Koly,K M Saif-Ur-Rahman,Md Mahbub Hossain

doi:10.1192/bji.2021.41

Abstract

Mental health is a significant factor for a sound and productive life; nevertheless, mental disorders do not often receive adequate research attention and are not addressed as a serious public health issue in countries such as Bangladesh. Part 1 of this two-part profile describes the current situation of mental health in Bangladesh in its wider sociocultural context, outlining existing policies and highlighting mental illness as a neglected healthcare problem in the country using a narrative synthesis method. The prevalence of mental disorders is very high and augmented in nature among different population groups in Bangladesh. A lack of public mental health facilities, scarcity of skilled mental health professionals, insufficient financial resource distribution, inadequately stewarded mental health policies and stigma contribute to making current mental healthcare significantly inadequate in Bangladesh. The country has few community care facilities for psychiatric patients. Furthermore, the current mental health expenditure by the Bangladeshi government is only 0.44% of the total health budget. Less than 0.11% of the population has access to free essential psychotropic medications.

Highlights

Bangladesh, a lower middle-income country in South Asia, has a population of 163 million, making it the world’s eighth most populous country.[1,2] Two-thirds of the population reside in rural areas
With only 4 hospital beds per 10 000 people, Bangladesh faces an immense burden of illness arising from both communicable and non-communicable diseases, including mental disorders.[4,5]
Mental healthcare in Bangladesh is enormously inadequate owing to a lack of public mental health facilities, scarcity of skilled mental health professionals, insufficient financial resource distribution and societal stigma

Summary

Background

Bangladesh, a lower middle-income country in South Asia, has a population of 163 million, making it the world’s eighth most populous country.[1,2] Two-thirds of the population reside in rural areas. Literacy rates are estimated at 75.62% for males and 69.90% for females.[3] With only 4 hospital beds per 10 000 people, Bangladesh faces an immense burden of illness arising from both communicable and non-communicable diseases, including mental disorders.[4,5] Mental healthcare in Bangladesh is enormously inadequate owing to a lack of public mental health facilities, scarcity of skilled mental health professionals, insufficient financial resource distribution and societal stigma. Very few healthcare workers in Bangladesh are trained in providing mental health services (0.49%), and there are even fewer psychiatrists (0.16 per 100,000 population).[17] The majority of these professionals work in the urban areas of the country, namely the capital city of Dhaka. These services are primarily located in urban areas, leaving a vast majority of the population devoid of such services.[5]

Conclusions

Findings

Declaration of interest