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Cited by 875Mental Health Treatment and AccessPsychiatric care and mental health servicesHealth Policy Implementation Science

Challenges and opportunities in global mental health: a research-to-practice perspective

Open access
Wainberg, Milton L., Scorza, Pamela, Shultz, James M., Helpman, Liat, Mootz, Jennifer J., Johnson, Karen A., Neria, Yuval, Bradford, Jean-Marie E. +2 more·2017·Current Psychiatry Reports
DOI 10.1007/s11920-017-0780-zPMC PMC5553319
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Abstract

Purpose of review Globally, the majority of those who need mental health care worldwide lack access to high-quality mental health services. Stigma, human resource shortages, fragmented service delivery models, and lack of research capacity for implementation and policy change contribute to the current mental health treatment gap. In this review, we describe how health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are addressing the mental health gap and further identify challenges and priority areas for future research.Recent findings Common mental disorders are responsible for the largest proportion of the global burden of disease; yet, there is sound evidence that these disorders, as well as severe mental disorders, can be successfully treated using evidence-based interventions delivered by trained lay health workers in low-resource community or primary care settings. Stigma is a barrier to service uptake. Prevention, though necessary to address the mental health gap, has not solidified as a research or programmatic focus. Research-to-practice implementation studies are required to inform policies and scale-up services. Four priority areas are identified for focused attention to diminish the mental health treatment gap and to improve access to high-quality mental health services globally: diminishing pervasive stigma, building mental health system treatment and research capacity, implementing prevention programs to decrease the incidence of mental disorders, and establishing sustainable scale up of public health systems to improve access to mental health treatment using evidence-based interventions.

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Crossref · 10.1007/s11920-017-0780-z

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  • Stigma is a force that can exert powerful influences on perceptions of mental health issues and treatments across all social actors and processes, including the intervention domain.

    “it became apparent in our framework refinement process that, particularly in mental health, stigma (e.g. self-stigma, family/community stigma, provider stigma, organizational or institutional-level stigma) is a force that can exert powerful influences on perceptions of mental health issues and treatments across all social actors and processes—including those in the intervention domain [39–42].”

    From Barriers and facilitators to implementation of evidence-based task-sharing mental health interventions in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review using implementation science frameworks (2022) · cites this paper as [42]

    In “Reducing Mental Illness Stigma” (page unavailable), the paper says stigma discourages care-seeking, perpetuates misconceptions about whether mental illness can be cured, and may affect the standing of mental health professions. Its “Stigma” section also links prejudice and discrimination to delayed or prevented treatment. These passages support a powerful influence on perceptions and treatment uptake, but do not establish an influence across all social actors and processes, including every part of the intervention domain. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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  • Access to mental health care has not expanded to adequately meet the demand.

    “existing models of mental health care will not adequately expand to meet the demand”

    From The Opportunities and Risks of Large Language Models in Mental Health (2024) · cites this paper as [4]

  • Evidence-based psychotherapy studies in low- and middle-income countries rarely address sustainability by examining the research-to-practice gap or using human resources that do not depend on research funding.

    “Further, these studies seldom address sustainability by evaluating the mental health research-to-practice gap or leveraging human resources not dependent on research funding.4”

    From Technology and implementation science to forge the future of evidence-based psychotherapies: The PRIDE scale-up study (2021) · cites this paper as [4]

  • A widely recognized mental health treatment gap exists whereby more individuals are diagnosed with mental health problems than those who receive treatment.

    “This has led to a widely recognized mental health treatment gap, whereby more individuals are diagnosed with mental health problems than those who receive treatment [14, 15].”

    From Explaining adults’ mental health help-seeking through the lens of the theory of planned behavior: A scoping review (2022) · cites this paper as [15]

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [47]Sweetland AC Oquendo MA Carlson C Magidson JF Wainberg ML Mental health research in the global era: training the next generation Acad Psychiatry 2016 40 4 715 20 26497971 PMC4842156
  2. [51]Da Silva TFC Lovisi G Conover S Susser E Critical time intervention–task shifting (CTI-TS): a psychosocial intervention for people with severe mental illness in Latin America Global Advanced Research Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences 2014 3 5 087 9

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Authors
Wainberg, M. L., Scorza, P., Shultz, J. M., Helpman, L., Mootz, J. J., Johnson, K. A., Neria, Y., Bradford, J.-M. E., Oquendo, M. A., & Arbuckle, M. R.
Affiliations
  • Columbia University Irving Medical Center (US)
  • University of Miami (US)
Corresponding author
Wainberg, Milton L.
ORCID
Venue
Current Psychiatry Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2017-04-19
Volume
19
Issue
5
Pages
28-28
ISSN
  • 1523-3812 (ISSN-L)
  • 1535-1645
DOI
10.1007/s11920-017-0780-z
PMC
PMC5553319
OpenAlex
W2606586703
Cited by
875
References
105
Citations by year
2026: 117 · 2025: 179 · 2024: 148 · 2023: 138 · 2022: 111 · 2021: 71 · 2020: 73 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 1
FWCI
4.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (unspecified)
Locations
  • Current Psychiatry Reports (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH096724)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Policy Implementation Science
Keywords
global mental health, mental health treatment gap, access to mental health care, mental health stigma, common mental disorders, severe mental illness, lay health workers, community mental health services, primary care, mental health prevention, implementation research, research capacity building, low- and middle-income countries, mental health policy
MeSH terms
Mental Disorders, Health Personnel, Humans, Mental Health, Mental Health Services, Public Health, Global Health

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