Global mental Challenges: Response to local needs 1Amresh Shrivastava Running Title: Mental health: beyond Geo-political Boundaries 1Department of Psychiatry, Elgin Early Intervention Program for Psychosis, The University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada, and Mental Health Resource Foundation, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, e-mail: dr.amresh@gmail.com.

The health of the people determines athe health of a society and a country. Reference to ‘health’, more often than not, directs one’s thinking towards physical health, without realizing that physical health is inseparable from mental health. Physical disorders co-exist with mental disorders and mental disorders are a significant risk factor for physical illnesses. The WHO agenda on ‘no health without mental health’ is one of the key initiatives in the field of global mental health. It is imperative that this becomes a movement of the people rather than remaining restricted to health care professions. The field of International Mental Health has been created to address the problems of cross-cultural and cross-regional variations and it derives commonalities, determines differences, synthesizes information, identifies gaps and brings in expertise to deal with these complex problems in a locally relevant manner.

Despite our best efforts mental health problems remain a low priority in most countries. Mental health problems due to poverty, marginalization and inequalities are not exclusive to developing countries alone but rather affect both developing and developed countries. There is evidence to suggest that by implementing mental health interventions this resulted in improved economic [1] which provides a strong argument to effectively treat mental disorders in order to enhance economic and social capital. The challenges associated with confronting global mental health include making care accessible to all, ensuring sustained supply of psychotropic medications, addressing needs of manpower, and human resource development. Once we are able to develop strategic interventions and educational programs to demonstrate a perceptible change in the life of the mentally ill, the scenario of funding, and availability of resources may change. The global mental health movement offers a commitment for equal and respectable treatment to all people suffering from mental disorders.

References 1. Lund C, De Silva M, Plagerson S, Cooper S, Chisholm D, Das J et al. Poverty and mental disorders: breaking the cycle in low-income and middle-income countries. (2011;378(9801):1502-14.