Editorial: Mental Health as a Public Health Issue

Abstract

Two guest editorials are reprinted with kind permission from the American Journal of Public Health: Perry and colleagues address the centrality of mental health in a public health agenda,5 and Power presents a public health approach to mental health promotion and mental illness prevention, and a strategy to promote individual, family, and community resilience.6 EPIDEMIOLOGY AND MENTAL HEALTH Our original articles include Weinberg and colleagues' review of the epidemiology of mental disorders based on the World Mental Health Survey Consortium, a WHO and Harvard University collaboration of 28 countries that used uniform methods and procedures and followed the same rules of analysis.7 The information that was generated is an invaluable resource for decision makers and all the stakeholders of both the public health and mental health domains. Exercising legal capacity includes making decisions about employment, medical or psychosocial treatment, property, finances, family, and participation in community activities.10 Shirli Werner using the CRPD addresses the importance of developing decision-making skills among people with intellectual disability and their opportunities for decision-making, with professional support, fostering the philosophy of person-centered planning.11 Stuart and Arboleda-Flórez discuss the frequency and impact of stigma on people with mental disorders and their place in society, and recommend that public health agencies view stigma reduction as part of their continuous responsibility.12 COMPLEXITY AND COSTS Rice and colleagues review Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) showing the complexity of determining the relevant causative factors in the identification of increasing numbers of children with an ASD, and the impact this has on individuals, families, and communities.13 Perla Werner addresses family impacts of persons with mild cognitive impairment noting that studies are needed for the development of interventions necessary to reduce cost and social burden of care giving.14 Gvion and Apter review issues related to suicide, which WHO estimates in 2020 will cost the lives of some 1.5 million people, with ten to twenty times more attempted suicides worldwide. Additionally, the inverse relationship must be recognized when mental health issues influence physical health, as Fleishman and Lurie review the evidence of high risk of cardiovascular mortality among persons with schizophrenia.18 MENTAL HEALTH IN DIFFERENT SETTINGS Regional specific challenges and solutions are addressed by several authors, including Burns, who reviews the burden of disease, risk factors and natural history of schizophrenia in Africa with specific socio-economic, political and cultural transformations in that context19; Minoletti and colleagues, discuss community mental health services in Latin America20; and Petrea presents the dilemma of post Soviet mental health in many countries of the former Soviet Union.21 COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH CARE Psychotropic medications and community service delivery models have changed the face of psychiatric care with management of many mental illnesses in the community rather than in institutional settings. Theodore H. Tulchinsky, MD, MPH,1 Antoine Flahault, MD, PhD,2 Itzhak Levav, MD, MSc,3 Ezra Susser, MD, DrPH,4 Viviane Kovess-Masfety, MD, PhD,5 Soumitra Pathare, MD,6 Irena Gryga, MD, PhD7 1 Deputy Editor, Public Health Reviews; Emeritus Professor, Braun School of Public Health, Hebrew University-Hadassah, Ein Karem, Jerusalem, Israel. 2 Editor in Chief, Public Health Reviews; Professor of Public Health at University Paris Descartes, School of Medicine, Sorbonne, Paris Cité, France. 3 Department of Community Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences and Social Welfare, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. 4 Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York; and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA. 5 Ecole des Hautes Études en Santé Publique (EHESP), Paris and Rennes, France. 6 Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, India Law Society, Pune, India. 7 School of Public Health, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kiev, Ukraine.