WHO Urges Increased Investments and Services for Mental Health

WHO Urges Increased Investments and Services for Mental Health

September 04, 2007

    GENEVA, Sept. 4 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The World Health
Organization (WHO) is today appealing to countries to
increase their support for mental health services. The
appeal is part of a series of six reviews on global mental
health which are being published today in the journal The
Lancet. WHO has worked  closely with the journal The Lancet
to generate the evidence and formulate the call for action.

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http://www.xprn.com/xprn/sa/20061102095006-51-min.jpg )
 
    Mental disorders are common but as many as half of all
people with severe mental disorders and a vast majority of
those with mild or moderate disorders worldwide do not
receive any treatment. Even when treatment is available, it
is often delivered in institutional settings which in many
countries are associated with stigma and human rights
violations. 
 
    The reasons for this bleak situation are clear: mental
health services are being starved of  both human and
financial resources. WHO's Mental Health Atlas database
shows that a majority of countries in Africa and South-East
Asia spend less than 1% of their health budget on mental
health. Low income countries have an average of 0.05
psychiatrists and 0.16 psychiatric nurses per 100,000
population (about two hundred times less than in high
income countries); these extremely low rates make it
impossible for satisfactory services to be delivered in
these countries.
 
    WHO is supporting a call for action to increase the
coverage of mental health services for mental disorders in
low- and middle-income countries. The call is targeted at
public health planners and urges them to assign a higher
priority to mental health. 
 
    "This topic should matter to everyone, because
people living with mental disorders in low- and
middle-income countries are systematically locked out of
the benefits of development that are open to others. When
not addressed, mental disorders deprive people of
opportunities to escape from poverty and deny them a voice
to claim their rights," said Dr Catherine Le
Gal¨¨s-Camus, WHO Assistant Director-General for
Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health.
 
    "The current situation means that people with
mental illnesses are at best ignored and at worst actively
discriminated against in many countries. We can only
improve the services available to people with mental
disorders if there is a major and rapid increase in
investment in this area," said Dr Benedetto Saraceno,
WHO Director of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.
 
    Estimates show that the amount of money required to
deliver a core package of mental health care is
approximately USD 2 per person per year in low-income
countries and USD 3-4 in lower-middle income countries.
This package, based on treatment of mental disorders in
primary health care and in community-based facilities would
increase the treatment coverage to 80% for severe mental
disorders and 25-33% for less severe ones. These targets
are currently the best attainable level for most low- and
middle-income countries given the current poor
infrastructure and scarcity of human resources for mental
health care.
 
    The Call for Action further reinforces WHO's global
action programme on assisting low- and middle-income
countries in providing mental health care. 

    Link to Mental Health website and to the Lancet Series
http://www.who.int/mental_health/en/ .
 
    All press releases, fact sheets and other WHO media
material may be found at: http://www.who.int .


    For further information please contact:
 
     Shekhar Saxena, Coordinator, 
     Mental Health: Evidence and Research, WHO Geneva 
     Tel:    [phone]
     Mobile: [phone]
     Email:  [e-mail] 
     Media enquiries: [phone]