Moving Away From the Scarcity Fallacy: Three Strategies to Reduce Mental Health Treatment Gap in LMICs

The mental health treatment gap, defined as the difference between the number of people who have mental disorders and those who can access appropriate treatment, is estimated to be as high as 85% in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs), compared to only 40% in high-income countries (HICs)^1.

85%

Treatment gap

40%

The mental health treatment gap is only 40% in high‐income countries (HICs)

This study explores three strategies to reduce this mental health treatment gap

18 - 22

Peers as young as 18 to 22 years can provide evidence‐based intervention in schools

The Challenge

There's a significant mental health treatment gap in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). This gap refers to the difference between the number of people who have mental disorders and those who can access appropriate treatment. This treatment gap is a major global health priority that needs to be addressed.

The Solution

Contrary to popular belief, the solution doesn't lie in replicating the high-income countries' (HICs) model of expert caregivers. Instead, LMICs should focus on utilizing their existing human resources and infrastructure innovatively to provide mental health services.

The Study

The study explores the feasibility of three strategies to minimize the mental health treatment gap. These strategies include utilizing existing resources like families, individuals with lived experience, community health volunteers, school teachers, counselors, and healthcare workers at community health service centers to provide mental health services.

The Procedure

The procedure involves training these resources to recognize symptoms of mental disorders, offer first aid psychosocial support, and provide referrals for continued support. The World Health Organization (WHO)’s mhGAP Intervention Guide (mhGAP‐IG) can be used to guide this training process.

The Results

The results show that these strategies can potentially deliver affordable, available, accessible, and evidence‐based mental health services. It can help reduce the treatment gap to levels seen in HICs using the currently available resources.

In Conclusion

It's time to rethink strategies and prioritize innovative and context-appropriate models to reduce the mental health treatment gap in LMICs. This approach will help us utilize existing resources more effectively while new resources continue to be developed.

‍

Curious?

Read our full study.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Explore other cases

explore

80%

Youths improved wellbeing outcomes

Effect of Shamiri Layperson-Provided Intervention vs Study Skills Control Intervention for Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescents in Kenya: RCT

The Shamiri intervention shows that scalable psychological interventions that invoke simple psychological principles, rather than explicit references to psychopathology, can alleviate depression and anxiety symptoms in Kenyan adolescents.

$15.15

Cost of delivery

Costs and Cost-Effectiveness of Shamiri, a Brief, Layperson-Delivered Intervention for Kenyan Adolescents: RCT

Shamiri is a cost-effective method that can significantly reduce depression and anxiety. Non-expert providers can offer this effective treatment with just 10 days of training, compared to the several years required to become a licensed mental health provider.

51 adolescents participated

Group Intervention for Adolescent Anxiety and Depression: Outcomes of a Randomized Trial with Adolescents in Kenya

Youth mental health interventions in low-resource communities may benefit from including empirically supported elements, using stigma-free content, and using trained lay-providers. We developed and evaluated such an intervention, targeting adolescent depression and anxiety in Kenya, where mental health care is limited by social stigma and a paucity of providers.

Research Informs Our Work

See below on how research guides us every step of the way:

Science can help us shape the future

The goal of our research is to develop interventions that can help youth actualize their life outcomes, identify which interventions work and why, and develop and test novel and accessible approaches to dissemination and scaling in order to maximize our impact.

Open science

Open science allows us to collaborate and share our work with the world. Our data and publications are open access.

Multicultural collaboration

Multicultural and interdisciplinary collaboration amplifies the communities that we serve.

Contextualized research

Research is not done in a silo. It is done with and for communities. Context matters.