“The challenge is we have in the order of a billion people on the planet who will have a mental health problem in their lifetime and not get evidence based care for it…’, says Gary Belkin, Executive Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in a new report from the (UK) All Party Parliamentary Group for Global Health and APPG on Mental Health.

“We have such good cost-effective interventions. Treatments for mental disorders are as cost-effective as those for other chronic diseases like diabetes”

Vikram Patel, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The report makes a number of recommendations, two of which are particularly relevant to HIFA:

Recommendation 2: NGOs and others working in international development should support staff to understand the needs and capacities of people with mental health problems, encourage the inclusion of people with mental disorders in their general development programmes, set up new mental health specific programmes,and measure the impact of their programmes on mental health

Recommendation 3: Professional bodies and mental health providers, with the support of government, should establish and expand trainingand research partnerships with low and middle income countries – seekingto teach and to learn about professional skills, tackling discrimination and policy reform

You can freely download the report here:

http://www.appg-globalhealth.org.uk/

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Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa2015.org