Contextualizing mental health services and its importance in Pakistan

Abstract

The research explores the mental health service delivery mechanisms, issues and challenges in Pakistan, it explains the constraints in understanding mental health and seeking help for it. It focuses on answering questions like, what is the background of the services available in the country, what is the procedure for diagnosis, what are the issues in the follow up and what are the challenges faced by people in mental health service delivery. The methods used were in-depth interviews and key informant and it was concluded that issues lie in people’s perceptions because of various socio-economic and political factors and they play a major role in influencing people’s thinking when it comes to mental health and its services. Problems exist on a local, regional and global level, including economic, political and structural issues. In addition to that, the importance of the media and international stakeholders is overlooked in Pakistan. The major issue lies in the incorporation of mental health in the primary health care agenda so that people would have easy access to the mental health services in addition to the physical health services.