The Mental Health Workforce Gap in Low- and Middle-income Countries: a Needs-based Approach

Overview

Journal Bull World Health Organ

Specialty Public Health

Date 2011 Mar 8

PMID 21379414

Citations 169

Authors

Tim A Bruckner

Richard M Scheffler

Gordon Shen

Jangho Yoon

Dan Chisholm

Jodi Morris

Brent D Fulton

Mario R Dal Poz

Shekhar Saxena

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the shortage of mental health professionals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Methods: We used data from the World Health Organization's Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS) from 58 LMICs, country-specific information on the burden of various mental disorders and a hypothetical core service delivery package to estimate how many psychiatrists, nurses and psychosocial care providers would be needed to provide mental health care to the total population of the countries studied. We focused on the following eight problems, to which WHO has attached priority: depression, schizophrenia, psychoses other than schizophrenia, suicide, epilepsy, dementia, disorders related to the use of alcohol and illicit drugs, and paediatric mental disorders.

Findings: All low-income countries and 59% of the middle-income countries in our sample were found to have far fewer professionals than they need to deliver a core set of mental health interventions. The 58 LMICs sampled would need to increase their total mental health workforce by 239,000 full-time equivalent professionals to address the current shortage.

Conclusion: Country-specific policies are needed to overcome the large shortage of mental health-care staff and services throughout LMICs.

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