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Globalising mental health: a neo‐liberal project

Globalising mental health: a neo‐liberal project Purpose – The paper's aim is to review how relevant the World Health Organisation's Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) initiative is to mental health care in non‐Western societies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a review of the programme and its relevance to mental health care by drawing on available literature and evidence. Findings – mhGAP promotes the idea that mental health problems exist as problems within individuals, that they represent a substantial, though largely hidden, proportion of the world's overall disease burden, and that mental health services need scaling up across the globe to improve outcomes. However, mental health outcomes do not appear any better in those countries with the most developed services and the initiative does not seem to properly engage an evidence base that is at odds with the direction of travel the initiative recommends. Originality/value – The paper explores these contradictions and argues that, whether intentional or not, mhGAP reflects and is part of the global neo‐liberal economic system and functions largely to expand the market for a particularly Western approach to understanding mental distress. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care Emerald Publishing

Globalising mental health: a neo‐liberal project

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References (26)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1757-0980
DOI
10.1108/17570981111249293
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – The paper's aim is to review how relevant the World Health Organisation's Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) initiative is to mental health care in non‐Western societies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a review of the programme and its relevance to mental health care by drawing on available literature and evidence. Findings – mhGAP promotes the idea that mental health problems exist as problems within individuals, that they represent a substantial, though largely hidden, proportion of the world's overall disease burden, and that mental health services need scaling up across the globe to improve outcomes. However, mental health outcomes do not appear any better in those countries with the most developed services and the initiative does not seem to properly engage an evidence base that is at odds with the direction of travel the initiative recommends. Originality/value – The paper explores these contradictions and argues that, whether intentional or not, mhGAP reflects and is part of the global neo‐liberal economic system and functions largely to expand the market for a particularly Western approach to understanding mental distress.

Journal

Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social CareEmerald Publishing

Published: Aug 15, 2011

Keywords: Mental health; Mental illness; Psychiatry; Globalization; Neo‐liberalism; Classification; Outcomes; Health services

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