WHO and mental health--a view from developing countries.
Year: 2000
Type: article
Abstract: Developing countries and WHO programmes The World Health Organization has played a very important part in the development of mental health care in developing countries. The influence of WHO is visible in almost all the major developments in mental health care in these countries during the last 50 years, be it in the curriculum for undergraduate medical education, or in the introduction of a mental health component in primary care, or in setting up national programmes for mental health, or in the strengthening of training and research capabilities. It is a record of which WHO can be proud. It also adds to WHO's responsibility to be especially attentive to the needs of developing countries when planning its mental health programme for the 21st century (1). The problems in developing countries of inadequate financial and human resources, together with the pressure of other health priorities, are known all too well. It is, however, not often appreciated that developing countries are also rich in the resources which are so important for the success of many mental health programmes and are as yet grossly underutilized. They include close family ties, extensive social networks, and rich cultural traditions. Resources of this kind, if properly used, can contribute greatly to the success of mental health programmes. Advocacy for mental health One of the major difficulties in developing countries is in giving some degree of priority to mental health programmes in the midst of competing health problems such as infections, malnutrition, unsafe drinking-water, and high maternal and child mortality. These are undeniably very pressing and urgent health problems, but so are mental disorders. The tragedy of developing countries now is that we have to fight simultaneously on the fronts both of communicable and of noncommunicable diseases. These problems make advocacy for mental health all the more indispensable, as there is tremendous apathy in this regard among the medical administrators and decision-makers. Initiative and support from WHO would be crucial for changing this attitude and achieving priority status for mental health in developing countries. The need for a simple measure for mental health problems One of the major stumbling blocks to measuring health problems is the current style of collecting epidemiological data in which overriding importance is given to mortality and causes of death. Diseases which do not cause death are left out as relatively unimportant and unglamorous in health programmes. One major advance in recent years has been the concept of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). It has forced the health planners to take note of mental health problems. While DALYs are a great improvement over the routine measures of general morbidity, they have their own limitations. For example a DALY information set does not take into account the individual's socioeconomic circumstances, and is a very important dimension of health in developing countries. There is an urgent need for some simplified but reliable measure which can routinely report mental ill-health and the circumstances in which it occurs in developing countries. How broad should be the concept of mental health? The next important question for developing countries is how broad the concept of mental health should be. Should it be extended to include various psychosocial problems? …
Source: Europe PMC (PubMed Central)
Author: N N Wig
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1522677869