41% of countries do not have a mental
health policy.
25% of countries have no legislation on
mental health.
28% have no separate budget for mental
health.
37% of countries do not have mental
health community care facilities.
These statistics present the current
situation of global mental disease burden. However, behind the statistics, the
reality shows more cruel pictures: discrimination and stigmatized images around
people with mental disorders and shortage of mental health professionals lead
the marginalized population to live in the shadow.
Like the person who has been locked in
the wood house for ten years in the video we showed in the class, many people
with mental disorders are victimized for their illness, and become the target
of discrimination. Some stigma are from general population, as Dr. Maselko
mentioned in her lecture, because the definition of mental illness is so vague
and incomplete in developing countries, people may hesitate to search for help
because they do not even have the knowledge of the symptoms. Therefore, due to
inaccurate information of mental disorders, many people believe that the disease
is untreatable, and the person with the disease needs to be excluded from
population. On the other hand, abundant evidence from Western countries
indicates that people with mental disorders are stigmatized and discriminated
against by health professionals. Specifically in developing countries,
treatment suggestions from health professionals to those with mental
disorders include a wide range of proposals, some of them are punitive and
discriminatory, and far from official guideline recommendations. These negative social attitudes towards people with mental disorders have an
adverse effect on prevention and early treatment. And these attitudes are pervasive even though the United
Nations has provided a basic standard for people with mental disorders:
All person with a mental illness, or
who are being treated as such person, shall be treated with humanity and
respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. All person with mental
illness, or who are being treated as such person, have the right to protection
from economic, sexual and other forms of exploitation, physical or other abuse
and degrading treatment.
United
Nations Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness
However, most countries of the world are far from complying with this principle.
As Dr. Maselko and Dr. Shirey mentioned
in their lecture, there is a global disparity of receiving mental health care
between high-income and low or middle-income counties. For over 30 years,
international organizations such as World Health Organization have been
encouraging developing countries to increase their mental health facilities,
however, the progress in achieving well-equipped facilities for the care of
mental disorders has been slow. Almost one-fourth of developing
countries have no system for providing basic mental health treatment for
citizens. Even among countries that have such a system, the health facilities lack trained professionals who can provide good mental health
services. Most of the facilities contain few doctors and many non-professional
health workers. The doctors are usually too busy for managing patients who need
specialized care, and have no time to supervise other health workers.
“
Where is the mental health hospital I can go for help? ” asked by the father in the
video. He is still searching for a mental hospital that can provide accurate
information and appropriate treatments for her daughter. As well as the father, we still have a long
way to go to bring people with mental disorders fully out of the shadows.
