1Bn people suffering from mental health condition globally – Report

 

One billion people world are currently suffering from varying mental health conditions.

This data was released by the the United for Global Mental Health (UGMH) as the part of activities commemorating World Mental Health Day.

According to UGH, around one in seven teenagers globally are also facing mental health challenges.

The data tagged: ‘Mental Health Finance Report’ indicated that the past decade had also seen a 13% rise in mental health conditions and substance abuse.

In light of this increasing need, financing mental health services was now critical.

“Domestic financing is the most important source of funding for mental health, but it rarely covers needs,” the report stated

“External organisations do help to fill these financing gaps, but seldom is it enough. Moving forwards, it is clear that mental healthcare needs not
only more financial resources, but also more effective and efficient use of sustainable resources currently available.

“Innovative financing, integration across budgets and inclusion in global financing partnerships could all be used to prioritise mental health in a world of competing agendas,” it added.

Financing

Despite some positive examples, in general, governments spending on mental health has not increased considerably – and is nowhere near the required amount – with no significant increase reported between 2017 and 2020 (the most recent set of data available).

Of the 85 countries that provided data in 2020, only 13 met the Lancet expenditure targets (5% for LICs, LMICs and UMICs, and 10% for HICs, as a proportion of the domestic health budget).

Of these 13, five were high-income countries (Barbados, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway), six were upper-middle-income countries (Jamaica, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, North Macedonia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and South Africa) and two were lower-middle-income countries (Kiribati and Lebanon).

Nine of these countries report the proportion of mental health financing that is allocated to psychiatric hospitals, with the median percentage being 7.1%.

The median gap between domestic resources and the target was 3.7 percentage points of government health budgets in 2020.

Many LICs were a long way behind, with median spend 4.9 percentage points behind the target.

While HICs need to increase their mental health allocations by 5.4 percentage points to reach the suggested minimum amount.

Currently, there is no sign of growth in the proportion of health financing going to mental health.

Recommendation

UGH recommended that spending targets of at least 5 and 10% of health budgets should be met by all governments.

“These targets should also be reviewed to continue progress and a cross-government spending guideline considered.

“This includes tracking expenditures for different types of mental health services in healthcare and other relevant sectors such as education, employment, criminal justice and social services,” the group said.

“Research should build on past research analysing DAMH according to the OECD DAC Creditor Reporting System to provide more up-to-date, granular data on DAMH trends and project themes.”