Mental Health and Public Health: Improving Mental Health and Well-being of Communities in the Modern World: A Pragmatic Approach Using the Global Mental Health Assessment Tool/PC

Abstract

The World Health Organization report of 2022 on mental health highlights the slow progress in reducing the treatment gap for people with mental illness worldwide. It emphasizes that everyone should participate in improving the mental health and well-being of the communities. The governments should put their act together and all agencies should work in coordination to address the mental health needs of their population. They should also focus on mental health promotion, early intervention, and prevention of suicide. The Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2030 outlines the importance of leadership and governance for mental health in providing comprehensive, integrated, and responsive mental health and social care services in community-based settings. Stigma, human resource shortages, fragmented service delivery models, and poor commitment of authorities for mental health are some of the factors for the ongoing service gap in mental health. Providing mental health knowledge and assessment skills to frontline workers, supporting frontline workers by mental health specialists using their leadership skills, and fully utilizing mobile and Internet technology in providing education and training as well as providing services could bring down the treatment gap of mental disorders worldwide. The Global Mental Health Assessment Tool for Primary Care and General Health Setting (GMHAT/PC)-based training package has been developed and successfully implemented in training frontline health workers in different parts of the word. The authors propose that this may be a pragmatic way to integrate mental health in public health by skilling frontline workers in assessing mental health along with physical health and by providing holistic care.