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"This report provides an overview of who is currently funding mental health and who isn’t, but could be. It is a synthesis of research previously conducted in this field and analyses both existing and new funders. It highlights how little information there is on what donors are spending on mental health globally, what types of activities are funded and why funding mental health delivers a variety of benefits, and it suggests how to frame the issue to encourage more investment".

This article with a video is related to a report examining the abuses—including pasung—that persons with psychosocial disabilities face in the community, mental hospitals, and various other institutions in Indonesia, including stigma, arbitrary and prolonged detention, involuntary treatment, and physical and sexual violence. It also examines the government’s shortcomings in addressing these problems.

Based on research across the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra, Human Rights Watch documented 175 cases of persons with psychosocial disabilities in pasung or who were recently rescued from pasung. 

Purpose: The aim of this research is to assess China’s first Mental Health Law in terms of Core Concepts of Human Rights and equitable coverage of Vulnerable Groups.

Methods: The EquiFrame analytical tool provided the framework for evaluation of the inclusion of Core Concepts of Human Rights as well as Vulnerable Groups in the Law.

Results: China’s Mental Health Law scored 83% for Core Concept coverage, with a Core Concept Quality score of 76%. The Law had a 42% score for Vulnerable Groups coverage. This gave the Law an overall score of “Moderate” in terms of Human Rights coverage.

Conclusions: China’s Mental Health Law is a landmark document providing the country’s first ever legal framework for mental health. While the Law scores high on level commitment in Core Concepts of Human Rights, the potential for equitable protection would be enhanced by increased inclusion of Vulnerable Groups.

Limitations: Further analyses of health and social policies in the People’s Republic of China from a Human Rights perspective would provide a deeper understanding of the Law in context.

"This study looks into the inclusion of persons with disabilities and its impact on the economy. Persons with disabilities have been included in mainstream, specialist and active labour market programmes over the years in the EU. During the first decade of 2000s, many countries have used the "Work First Approaches", which led people to work before any training. The work first approaches have during the previous times provided good employment without people having the skills. In recent times, an activation approach has been developed in order to ensure that people with more complex disabilities are included in the labour market. This created inclusion programmes that assist people in the job search process, like individual counselling, vocational rehabilitation etc". The report provides an extensive overview of studies and research on the economic impact inclusion in the open labour market for persons with disabilities can have for governments and public authorities and a more general overview assessing impact on businesses and individuals. This study provides a review of the relevant literature. Using standard methods, relevant articles in the English language (or with English language abstracts) were identified, published between 1980 and 2016. 
 

Articles include:

• Disability and armed conflict: A quest for Africanising disability in Uganda
• Disadvantage and disability: Experiences of people from refugee backgrounds with disability living in Australia
• Tangible First Steps: Inclusion Committees as a Strategy to Create Inclusive Schools in Western Kenya
• The Re-covering Self: a critique of the recovery-based approach in India’s mental health care
• To what extent is Universal Design for Learning “universal”? A case study in township special needs schools in South Africa
• Una Vida Sin Palabras?: Disability, Subalternity and the Sandinista Revolution

“In England between 2010 and 2013, just over one million recipients of the main out-of-work disability benefit had their eligibility reassessed using a new functional checklist—the Work Capability Assessment. Doctors and disability rights organisations have raised concerns that this has had an adverse effect on the mental health of claimants, but there are no population level studies exploring the health effects of this or similar policies… Here the researchers used multivariable regression to investigate whether variation in the trend in reassessments in each of 149 local authorities in England was associated with differences in local trends in suicides, self-reported mental health problems and antidepressant prescribing rates, while adjusting for baseline conditions and trends in other factors known to influence mental ill-health”

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, doi:10.1136/jech-2015-206209

Background: Childhood anxiety presents a serious mental health problem, and it is one of the most common forms of psychological distress reported by youth worldwide. The prevalence of anxiety symptoms amongst South African youth is reported to be significantly higher than in other parts of the world. These high prevalence rates become even more significant when viewed in terms of children with visual impairments, as it is suggested that children with physical disabilities may be more prone, than their non-disabled peers, for the development of psychological difficulties. 

Objectives: The main aim of this study is to develop, implement and evaluate a specifically tailored anxiety intervention programme for use with South African children with visual impairments.

Method: A specifically tailored cognitive-behavioural therapy-based anxiety intervention, for 9–13 year old South African children with visual impairments, will be evaluated in two special schools. The study will employ a randomised wait-list control group design with pre- postand follow-up intervention measures, with two groups each receiving a 10 session anxiety intervention programme. The main outcome measure relates to the participants’ symptoms of anxiety as indicated on the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale.

Conclusion: If the anxiety intervention programme is found to be effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety, this universal intervention will lay down the foundation upon which future contextually sensitive (South African) anxiety intervention programmes can be built.

“The expert group was formed to address this challenge, bringing together UN experts to review evidence on mental well-being and disability related to disasters, share lessons learned and best practices, and develop recommendations for mainstreaming these issues in Disaster Risk Education.” This UN University report illustrates how disability and mental health should be highlighted as a priority in disaster risk reduction planning and execution. In addition, the group responsible for the report suggest that disability and mental health be integrated into any future discussions related to security and human rights. Finally, the group recommended that a United Nations working group be established to explore the ways in which policies and action effect or how these individuals can affect policy within the United Nations. 

An easy to read leaflet providing contact details for the various organisations and services that are available to victims of gender-based violence in Zambia