Mental illness is on the rise around the world, but spending on mental health has failed to keep pace with the increase, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, according to a report from The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development.
Co-lead editors of the report were Vikram Patel, professor in the Department of Global health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Shekhar Saxena, visiting professor of global mental health and former director of mental health at the World Health Organization.
“A mental health disorder can happen as much in a deprived community in Mozambique as it can in New York City,” said Saxena in an October 10, 2018 article in The Telegraph. “But mental health has been neglected by most communities and governments for a long time.”
The report said that urgent action is needed to protect mental health, prevent mental disorders, and scale up mental health detection, treatment, and support services. “Good mental health is a basic human asset which we should recognize, protect and cherish,” Saxena told the Telegraph.
Read the Telegraph article: An invisible crisis: developing countries remain ill-equipped to tackle mental health