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The mental health workforce gap in low- and middle-income countries: a needs-based approach
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the shortage of mental health professionals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). METHODS: We used data from the World Health Organization's Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS) from 58 LMICs, country-specific information on the burden of various mental disorders and a hypothetical core service delivery package to estimate how many psychiatrists, nurses and psychosocial care providers would be needed to provide mental health care to the total population of the countries studied. We focused on the following eight problems, to which WHO has attached priority: depression, schizophrenia, psychoses other than schizophrenia, suicide, epilepsy, dementia, disorders related to the use of alcohol and illicit drugs, and paediatric mental disorders. FINDINGS: All low-income countries and 59% of the middle-income countries in our sample were found to have far fewer professionals than they need to deliver a core set of mental health interventions. The 58 LMICs sampled would need to increase their total mental health workforce by 239,000 full-time equivalent professionals to address the current shortage. CONCLUSION: Country-specific policies are needed to overcome the large shortage of mental health-care staff and services throughout LMICs.
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“In Brazil, the number of mental health professionals is known to be inadequate to meet the current demand, a common trend found in other LMIC countries (5).”
From Use of mental health services by children with mental disorders in two major cities in Brazil (2019) · cites this paper as [5]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Bruckner, T. A., Scheffler, R. M., Shen, G., Yoon, J., Chisholm, D., Morris, J., Fulton, B. D., Dal Poz, M. R., & Saxena, S.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Georgia Southern University (US)
- World Health Organization (CH)
- gDepartment of Human Resources for Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Venue
- Bulletin of the World Health Organization
- Publisher
- WHO Press
- Published
- 2010-11-22
- Volume
- 89
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 184-194
- ISSN
- 0042-9686 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3044251
- OpenAlex
- W2124195919
- Cited by
- 433
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 34 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 12.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Bulletin of the World Health Organization (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Global Health Workforce Issues
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Global Health and Surgery
- Keywords
- mental health professionals, workforce shortage, low- and middle-income countries, mental health service delivery, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, depression, schizophrenia, suicide, epilepsy, dementia, substance use disorders, health workforce planning
- MeSH terms
- Workforce, Mental Disorders, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Developing Countries, Humans, Mental Health Services, Needs Assessment
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