A global mental health fund for serious mental illness in low-income and middle-income countries.

Abstract

Serious Mental Illnesses (SMI) are psychiatric disorders
(excluding developmental and substance use disorders) that result in
considerable functional impairment. These conditions receive little or no
funding in most Low and Middle Income (LAMI) countries. The huge gap in
resources for SMI can only be met by a global fund to provide the
treatment of SMI in LAMI countries. The Global Fund to fight AIDS
established more than two decades ago, not only provided enormous funding
but most importantly, generated the hope that the condition could be
treated. We argue that SMI stand today where HIV-AIDS was a couple of
decades ago. The cost effective interventions for these disorders are
available. For example, it is estimated that that an extra 11 Naira or I$
0.27 per capita would need to be invested each year to increase the
present treatment coverage for schizophrenia of 20% to a level of 70% in
Nigeria. The treatment package should include free access to essential
medicines to treat psychotic disorders and a component of appropriate
evidence based psychosocial intervention, which have been evaluated in
number of studies in these countries. It is ethical and public health
imperative that a Global Fund to provide the basic treatment for those
suffering from SMI is established and the seed money for the proposed
fund should be provided by rapidly developing LAMI countries such as
India and South Africa.