# data[].attributes.headline
Breakdown of Adults Who Used Mental Health Services from 2008-2012

# data[].attributes.subject
Breakdown of Adults Who Used Mental Health Services from 2008-2012

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
substance absuse and mental health relating to race and socioeconmic status

# data[].attributes.headline
Access to Mental Health Services in Africa

# data[].attributes.subject
Access to Mental Health Services in Africa

# data[].attributes.body
In some countries in Africa, mental health services are accessible such as in Kenya where they have private treatment centers. That being said, 90% of the continent of Africa as a whole has less than 1 psychiatrist for every 100,000 people.

In South Sudan between 2011-2012, over 90 people were imprisoned solely based on the believe that they were mentally unstable. As of 2014, Uganda still had a handful of people held in jail for crimes they did on the basis of insanity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sean Mayberry has spent his entire life surrounded by mental illness. As a child and an adult, people close to him have endured this affliction. But he had an epiphany when he happened upon a young man behind a farmhouse in Uganda, sitting in his own excrement and digging in the dirt.

"It was a turning point for me," he recalls. "I left that young man knowing that I had to do something for the mental health of that continent. He gave me the courage to try to make a difference for some of his mentally ill brothers and sisters."

Pauline Muchina is dealing with mental illness in her family in Kenya. Her 50-something sister lost her job due to depression and had to come home to live with her mother. She is now on medication and attends counseling.

Muchina also has a nephew suffering from depression. While in a government hospital, he was chained to a bed for one week and his condition got worse. Now the family has found a private rehabilitation center for him. He is getting better but it is costing the family $2,500 for six months. Muchina's family is middle-class and can pay the treatment (with difficulty), but the vast majority of Kenyans could never afford such expensive treatment.

Mental disorders and substance abuse are the third greatest contributor to the global burden of disability with 23% of the burden - greater than cardiovascular disease or cancer.

Yet the amount of resources expended on them is miniscule: A paper published earlier this month shows that the amount of development assistance for health attributed to mental health is less than 1%. And low-income countries themselves spend only 0.5% of their very limited health budgets on it, according to FundaMentalSDG, an initiative to strengthen mental health in the post-2015 agenda.

Here are some other facts about mental health, according to the World Health Organization (WHO):

1. Depression alone accounts for 4.3% of the burden of disease - with more than 350 million people all ages suffering from it - and is among the largest single causes of disability worldwide, particularly for women.

2. To describe the current accessibility of mental health services in Africa as deficient would be a gross understatement. Almost half of the world's population lives in countries where there is only one psychiatrist to 200,000 or more people, according to the WHO. Ninety percent of African countries have less than one psychiatrist per 100,000 people.

3. Around 20% of the world's children and adolescents have mental health problems.

4. About 800,000 people commit suicide every year.

5. Wars and disasters have a huge impact on mental health

6. Mental disorders increase the risk of getting ill from other diseases such as HIV, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and vice versa.

7. In Africa, human rights violations of people with mental and psychosocial disability are common.

A 2011 study by Harvard School of Public Health estimated that the cumulative global impact of mental disorders in terms of lost economic output amounted to $2.5 billion in 2010, estimated to increase to $6 billion by 2030. The share of this in low- and middle-income countries is $870 million and $2.1 billion, respectively.

In fact, Mayberry makes the case that depression also reduces the effectiveness of development programs.

"When you have 25% of the population that is depressed in many African countries, these individuals do not respond to the variety other development efforts which aim to get them to practice safe sex or follow tuberculosis treatment protocols, for example," says Mayberry. "Depression inhibits their ability to focus and concentrate, so donors end up wasting a vast amount of their development dollars trying to change the behaviors of these depression sufferers."

Muchina says that mental health affects all areas of life including family and human relationships. "Someone with depression and low self-esteem is not going to do much to better her or his life," she says. "A lot of violence against women and girls can be traced back to mental instability of the abusers. Most women who stay in abusive relationships, or fail to report abuse, also have mental and emotional issues. I believe that this has enabled abuse to go on from generation to generation. "

Mayberry created StrongMinds, to provide Africans with access to mental health. In Uganda, StrongMinds is showing that using ordinary people from African communities to deliver mental health care through talk therapy - in many cases without medication - can be surprisingly effective. This is huge, because mental health professionals are scarce and medication expensive.

StrongMinds has treated over 1,000 women with depression in the last year using 12 weeks of group talk therapy led entirely by trained employees who are not mental health professionals. The New York Times described this as "a depression-fighting strategy that could go viral."

Muchina says some Kenyan pastors, like her sister Anne, are counseling depression sufferers without psychotherapy training. In most cases, these pastors are the only hope for people encountering mental health challenges. If these pastors could be trained, she says, thousands of counselors could be put to work.

For over 15 years, Muchina has been supporting orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS, which gives these children a second chance in life, through the Future African Leaders Project. Muchina says that all of the young people participating in the Future African Leaders Project have suffered some form of trauma that require psychotherapy or counseling. Government help is virtually non-existent and the project cannot afford private care for all of the youth.

"In 2013, we lost a 21-year-old man to suicide," Muchina says. "He was suffering from depression and got into alcoholism - a nightmare combination. His brother is going through the same thing, and I worry about losing him, too."

The world's plan for dealing with mental health in Africa, and other developing countries, is embodied in WHO's Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP), developed in 2008. In 2013, the World Health Assembly adopted the WHO's Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020, which is global and designed to provide guidance for national action plans in all resource settings. Africa even developed its own Declaration of Mental Health in Africa last year.

Mental health was absent from the Millennium Development Goals, expiring this year, and some advocates fear that they will be similarly neglected in the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs)now being finalized.

"I greatly fear that, despite a real and determined push to place mental illness more squarely on the SDGs, we will once again fail mentally ill people everywhere," says Chris Underhill, founder president of BasicNeeds. "My fear is that the new SDGs will pass into international convention and once again the global community will have badly let mentally ill people down. Surely global development organizations and governments have to commit to the principle of proper access to treatment for the 450 million people who suffer mental ill health globally at any one time."
For wrenching images of mental health disorders in Africa, view this visual report from PBS NewsHour, "Mentally ill shackled and neglected in Africa's crisis regions."
Posted by David J. Olson at 7:02 AM

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
In Africa, gap between need and funding of mental health is huge

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This was originally published on Global Health TV on June 29, 2015. Sean Mayberry has spent his entire life surrounded by mental illness. As a child and an adult, people close to him have endured this affliction. But he had an epiphany when he happened upon a young man behind a farmhouse in Uganda, sitting...

# data[].attributes.headline
A Preview of Mental Health Care from 9 Countries

# data[].attributes.subject
A Preview of Mental Health Care from 9 Countries

# data[].attributes.body
When people think of "incredible health care" they often think of Canada or the United States, but two of the leading countries in mental health treatment are actually in Europe.

Luxembourg has universal healthcare, the same as Canada does, but rather than trying to shove everyone with mental health issues into a box and forcing them to conform - instead the encourage people to embrace their unique talents and strengths, which leads to a higher self esteem.

Advocating for community based mental health care for over 40 years, Germany provides financial support, extended employment services, and a ton of outreach programs. Noticing a lack of mental health services for refugees, Germany has created a program for refugees to train to become counselors, who then teach therapy and coping skills to incoming refugees.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This Is How 9 Countries Worldwide Treat Mental Health Issues

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Being a mental health and disability rights advocate who lives with severe mental illness in the United States is exhausting, and it can feel like never ending battle of fighting discriminatory mental health care policies.

# data[].attributes.headline
Mental Health Barriers Faced by People of Colour

# data[].attributes.subject
Mental Health Barriers Faced by People of Colour

# data[].attributes.body
Not only is mental health stigmatized in general, but it is so much more so in marginalized communities.

Asian families teach their children to be strong, and often put heavy academic pressures onto them. Because of this, Asian people have some of the highest rates of anxiety. Even when youth seek out treatment, the parents may not be able to fully understand why their child is having these issues, and they are scared that they will be judged if anyone finds out that someone within their family is dealing with a mental health issue.

Another reason why these minorities have a harder time receiving mental health treatment is due to cultural competencies. Cultural competencies are similar to a cultural barrier, where a doctor is more familiar with a typical American families mental health perception vs the mental health understanding of someone from a different country where mental health is not explored as frequently.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
If You're Not White It's Harder To Get Mental Health Care

# data[].attributes.body
In this video, Nora Blum talks about the broken mental health system, and the stigma surrounding asking for help. Nora explores what would happen if people and doctor's treated patients with physical health concerns the same way they treated mental health patients.

I believe that the mental health system has a lot of work to do - in Canada and around the world. In many provinces it is impossible to get effective mental health treatment in hospitals without being discharged almost the next day. Canada should look at some of our European neighbours for advice on how to improve our system.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Mental Health System - A Call for Change | Nora Blum | TEDxZurich