History of Mental Health 101: Mental Health in an Unequal World
Foreword
History of Mental Health 101 is a set of articles that reviews the history of mental health from a sociological perspective: from the ancient to the modern understanding of the concept. Nowadays, mental health is one of the most widely discussed topics; however, it had a hard, alluring history of development through the centuries. The following six articles explore the history of mental health and some of the most fascinating and sometimes unbelievable facts about the topic, aiming to raise awareness about mental health and its importance of one’s wellbeing.
History of Mental Health 101: Is there a Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body?
History of Mental Health 101: Chlorpromazine and the Drug Revolution
History of Mental Health 101: Deinstitutionalization and Community Care
History of Mental Health 101: Stigmatization of Mental Health
History of Mental Health 101: Mental Health in an Unequal World
Mental Health in an Unequal World
Mental health has come a long way, from the ignorant and deadly approaches in ancient times, to the modern world with scientifically and medically proven knowledge of the field, and vastly improved therapies. Nowadays, treatments are not only knowledge-based and effective, but also, they are believed to be more morally performed.
Despite the well-developed and developing mental health interventions, the majority of the population in low or medium-income countries (LMIC) still do not have access to proper care to treat their mental health problems. (Kohn et al., 2004). In addition to this, various studies have shown the correlation between costs and treatment, arguing that in most cases, price is an impediment to an effective and timely treatment of mental health problems (Chisholm et al., 2016; Petersen et al., 2016).
Hence, inequality in mental health treatments creates a huge gap in how mental health treatment is regarded globally. In response to this issue, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the Mental Health Gap Program Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG), designed to be easily used by non-professionals (WHO, 2016); however, implementing scientific knowledge and findings into practice has been problematic in low and middle-income countries. The main reasons for this, are the lack of recognition and understanding of the issue in society - in addition to stigma, shortages of mental health professionals and workers, separation and differentiation of mental health treatments from other health treatments, all result in poor quality care for those who need help (Thornicroft, 2012).