Mental health

"This paper examines current evidence regarding rates, risk factors, correlates and consequences of gender disparities in mental health. Gender is conceptualized as a structural determinant of mental health and mental illness that runs like a fault line, interconnecting with and deepening the disparities associated with other important socioeconomic determinants such as income, employment and social position"

This paper focuses upon integrating mental health into all development issues, including the MDGs. It presents mental health as an emerging development issue, highlights the vulnerability of persons with mental / psychosocial disabilities, and outlines mental health related to each millenium devleopment goal. It concludes by stating the response from the international community and makes recommendations for a way forward
UN(DESA)-WHO Policy Analysis

This report presents information outlining "the ways in which mental health concerns intersect with women’s reproductive health. It includes a discussion of the bio-psycho-social factors that increase vulnerability to poor mental health, those that might be protective and the types of programmes that could mitigate adverse effects and promote mental health." This review is useful for public health professionals, planners, policy makers and programme managers to raise awareness of mental health aspects of women’s reproductive health

This website contains many resources relating to the inter-relationship between mental health, poverty and development. It contains useful resources, information sheets, publications, journal and conference databases, key organisations and contacts, press releases and media coverage of the issues

This paper presents the findings of a review of the literature on the mental health support needs of people with physical impairments. It is divided into two main parts: a review of research literature concerned with psychology, psychiatry and rehabilitation services; and a review of what is known about the mental health support needs and experiences of people with physical impairments from a social model perspective

This study examines the extent of the gap between the high prevalence of mental disorders and the great number of individuals with psychiatric disorders who remain untreated, even though effective treatments exist. The study uses results from 37 studies on service utilisation worldwide and presents examples of the estimation of the treatment gap for WHO regions are presented. The treatment gaps are universally large but vary from region to region. The abstract to this report is given in French, Spanish and Arabic

"This training manual is meant to be used first and foremost by trainers within the ACT-network who have attended a training of psychosocial trainers workshop. The aim of the training manual is to serve as a resource for field workers to develop, facilitate and conduct their own psychosocial workshops within their specific work or regional context. It is not a comprehensive source of information about psychosocial issues. It is a trainer's guide for developing locally appropriate training"

"The toolkit begins with a general introduction that sets the stage for mental health and psychosocial interventions in the context of conflict affected populations. A discussion of programming issues then follows which is then followed by two sections that outline the steps to take to operationalise mental health and psychosocial interventions"

"The WHO mental health policy and service guidance package consists of the WHO mental health policy and plan checklists, and 14 interrelated modules...The package consists of a series of interrelated user-friendly modules that are designed to address the wide variety of needs and priorities in policy development and service planning. The topic of each module represents a core aspect of mental health"

This is a report of a situation analysis of mental health policy in South Africa, one of the four African countries involved in the wider Mental Health and Poverty Project
The report describes the broad context in which mental health policy making takes place; provides an assessment of the wider policy-making practices in the public sector in South Africa; describes and analyses the development of mental health policies and mental health law; and evaluates the involvement of stakeholders and their influence on the formulation of mental health policies and mental health law
Furthermore the report investigates the factors necessary for the effective implementation of mental health policies at three levels of social organisation: the macro (or national) level; the meso level (which corresponds to the provincial level) and the micro (or district) level. The project wishes to assess best practice with regard to the development of mental health policies and mental health law and the translation of these into strategic implementation plans at the macro, meso and micro levels

This article describes the work of Handicap International in working with children and young people in Sierra Leone. It emphasises how the particular nature of different forms of torture created links between the children’s physical trauma and the psychological suffering. This article is useful for practitioners who are working with children and young people who have been the victims and perpetrators of violence
Humanitaire, No 9

This manual is a guide to psychosocial interventions to help people cope with the emotional effects of disasters. Some are direct responses to the trauma of disasters, while others are longer-term responses. Even more than the physical effects of disasters, the emotional effects cause long-lasting suffering, disability and loss of income

This report examines the implications for children's development and mental health of malnutrition and reduced psychosocial stimulation. It looks at how to promote positive child development, prevention strategies, combined nutrition and stimulation programmes and the benefit of such programmes being community or home-based

A large number of people are exposed to extreme stressors that are a risk factor for mental health and social problems. This report describes principles and strategies that can be applied in resource poor settings where there are people who have been exposed to extreme stressors, such as refugees, internally displaced persons, disaster survivors and populations exposed to terrorism, genocide or war

Disability Rights International aims to protect the rights of people with mental disabilities through awareness raising of living conditions for children and adults with disabilities and through advocating for legislation to protect their rights. This website would be useful to people with an interest in human rights, legal reform, disability and development

MindFreedom International is a nonprofit organisation that unites 100 sponsor and affiliate grassroots groups with individual members to advocate for human rights and alternatives for people labeled with psychiatric disabilities. This website provides an overview of their campaigns, members, directories of membership, as well as links to related events, news and resources

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights) is a non-profit public interest law firm that undertakes a coordinated, strategic, legal effort seeking to end the abuses against people diagnosed with mental illness through individual legal representation. This website provides background information about the organisation and related research, as well as an overview of personal stories and both US and international contextual information