World Health Organization's Mental Health Atlas 2005:implications for policy development

Abstract

In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the second edition of the Mental Health Atlas, consisting of revised and updated information on mental health from countries. The sources of information included the mental health focal points in the Ministries of Health, published literature and unpublished reports available to WHO. The results show that global mental health resources remain low and grossly inadequate to respond to the high level of need. In addition, the revised Atlas shows that the improvements over the period 2001 to 2004 are very small. Imbalances across income groups of countries remain largely the same. Enhancement in resources devoted to mental health is urgently needed, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Figure 1

Percentage of total health budget spent on mental health in different income groups of countries (N=101).

Figure 2

Specified mental health budget as a proportion of total health budget by Gross Domestic Product per capita (N=101).