HEALTH: Too Many Nations Lack Mental Health Policies, Says WHO

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Apr 6 2001 (IPS) - The outcome of international campaigns to reduce mental illness will depend on the policies and programmes governments and health organisations implement, but so far most of the world is unprepared to handle mental health problems, warned the World Health Organisation (WHO) Friday.

The figures on the prevalence of mental illness and brain disorders have not been widely disseminated, but the fact is “the burden is big,” stated WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland. “I think the data would surprise many of you,” she told a press conference in this Swiss city.

The information the WHO gathered from 181 nations shows that 43 percent lack policies regarding mental health and 23 percent have never drafted legislation on the matter.

The United Nations agency’s statistics also indicate that in 38 percent of the countries surveyed, community mental health services do not exist and in 41 percent the primary health care centres do not offer any sort of treatment for such disorders.

The dissemination of information about the scope of the problem would contribute to reducing the prejudices surrounding mental illnesses and brain disorders, affirmed Brundtland.

The next step is “to use prevention measures, knowledge and also the new interventions that gradually have come into existence over the last two or three decades,” said the WHO chief.

These advances “greatly improve the ability to quickly treat and cure many illnesses of this kind.”

Mental health experts indicate that 70 percent of patients suffering from depression can fully recover through treatment with anti-depressant medications and psychotherapy.

However, fewer than 25 percent of such individuals receive treatment, a gap that exists in industrialised and developing countries alike.

The case of schizophrenia is similar because the incidence of relapse could be reduced 60 percent if the appropriate pharmaceuticals were supplied to the patients, and if their families received adequate training to support them.

But here, too, just 25 percent of people diagnosed with schizophrenia have access to this sort of assistance, according to the WHO.

Research indicates that 80 percent of epileptics could lead a normal life with the help of anti-convulsant drugs. But in developing countries, 90 percent of the individuals with epilepsy do not receive any sort of medical attention.

The WHO is dedicating World Health Day this year, Saturday, Apr 7, to the mental health question. The UN agency’s World Health Report 2001, to be released in October, is also to focus on the issue, which covers mental illnesses, such as depression, and brain disorders, like epilepsy.

It has been 42 years since the WHO first put mental health on the international agenda, and many positive experiences have been recorded in that period, Brundtland pointed out.

The treatment of mental illnesses, for example, is now a policy priority in Europe’s health programmes, she said.

The WHO official stated she had found important signs of progress in Pakistan as far as mental health awareness, and on a recent visit to China she concentrated her efforts on the importance of medical attention for people suffering from mental health problems.

David Byrne, the European Commission’s representative for Health and Consumer Protection, confirmed that “mental health is an issue of enormous importance” in the member-nations of the Europe Union (EU).

EU health authorities are “focussing more on the question of health promotion and the prevention of the development of mental diseases,” said Byrne.

The EU official, who will play a leading role in World Health Day events in Geneva this weekend, met with WHO authorities to discuss areas for cooperation between the organisations.