In response to moves from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Movement for Global Mental Health (MGMH) to redress the unequal access to mental health care in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) compared to high-income countries (HICs), the papers in this special issue of Disability and the Global South seek to highlight the issues of simply exporting a system developed in the global North irrespective of social and cultural context and lay the ground for (re)imagining and practising healing and support differently in LMICs and in HICs. The issue is a collection of 14 articles, including voices from the field