Guiding principles for the development of mental health policies in low- and middle- income countries

Abstract

Recently, the World Psychiatric Association Task Force, led by Professor Graham Thornicroft, drew the guidelines for taking the necessary steps towards the implementation of a community-based mental health care program and for overcoming obstacles and avoiding mistakes preventing this. The Task Force's main recommendations address the need for coordinated policies, plans and programs, the requirement to scale up services for entire populations, the importance of promoting community awareness about mental illness to increase levels of help-seeking, and the need to establish effective financial and budgetary provisions to offer direct support services to the community. According to this report and other articles on the subject, there are many principles that should be used to guide mental health policies. Historically, people with mental illnesses have been seen as people in need of protection and with limited ability to participate in the development of the mental health service system. However, since recovery is what people with disabilities aim at and considering that service providers are engaged in facilitating this recovery, policies geared towards any recovery must involve consumers right at the start of the policy-making process. In conclusion, when it comes to developing mental health policies not only in low- and middle- income countries, policy makers should aim at promoting the recovery of individuals by involving consumers. This should be so not because it is politically correct, but because consumers are the only ones who truly know their needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)