World Health Report on mental disorders treatment

Citation

(2002), "World Health Report on mental disorders treatment", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 15 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2002.06215aab.003

World Health Report on mental disorders treatment

World Health Report on mental disorders treatment

According to a new report, New Understanding, New Hope by the World Health Organisation, one in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives, and around 450 million people currently suffer from such conditions, placing mental disorders among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide. Treatments are available, but nearly two-thirds of people with a known mental disorder never seek help from a health professional. WHO says that stigma, discrimination and neglect prevent care and treatment from reaching people with mental disorders. Where there is neglect, there is little or no understanding. Where there is no understanding there is neglect.

In this new report WHO seeks to break this vicious cycle and urges governments to seek solutions for mental health that are already available and affordable. Governments should move away from large mental institutions and towards community health care, and integrate mental health care into primary health care and the general health care system.

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO, on releasing the World Health Report, said.

Mental illness is not a personal failure. In fact, if there is failure, it is to’be found in the way we have responded to people with mental and brain disorders … I hope this report will dispel long-held doubts and dogma and mark the beginning of a new public health era in the field of mental health.

According to WHO, lack of urgency, misinformation, and competing demands are blinding policy-makers from taking stock of a situation where mental disorders figure among the leading causes of disease and disability in the world. Depressive disorders are already the fourth leading cause of the global disease burden. By 2020 they are expected to rank second behind ischaemic heart disease but ahead of all other diseases.

The report invites governments to make strategic decisions and choices in order to bring about positive change in the acceptance and treatment of mental disorders. It says that some mental disorders can be prevented; most mental and behavioural disorders can be successfully treated; and that much of this prevention, cure and treatment is affordable.

WHO says that the responsibility for’action lies with governments. Currently, more than 40 per cent of countries have no mental health policy and over 30 per cent have no mental health programme, and around 25 per cent have no mental health legislation. WHO also says that’the magnitude of mental health burden is not matched by the size and effectiveness of the response it demands. Over 33 per cent of countries allocate less than 1 per cent of their total health budgets to mental health, with another 33 per cent spending just 1 per cent of their budgets on mental health. About 25 per cent of countries do not have the three most commonly prescribed drugs used to treat schizophrenia, depression and epilepsy at the primary health care level. There is only one psychiatrist per 100,000 people in over half the countries in the world, and 40 per cent of countries have less than one hospital bed reserved for mental disorders per 10 000 people.

The report says new knowledge can have a tremendous impact on how individuals, societies and the public health community deal with mental disorders. It is known that large mental institutions no longer represent the best option for patients and families. Such institutions lead to a loss of social skills, excessive restriction, human rights violations, dependency, and reduced opportunities for rehabilitation. Countries should move towards setting up community care alternatives in a planned manner, ensuring that such alternatives are in place even as institutions are being phased out.

WHO's message is that every country, no matter what its resource constraints, can do something to improve the mental health of its people. What it requires is the courage and the commitment to take the necessary steps.

For further information: Fact sheets and features as well as other WHO information on this subject can be obtained on Internet on the WHO home page.