Abstract
It is essential that access for everybody to mental health services is guaranteed and it is important to support people to timely access and receive adequate, evidence-based treatments well aware that many countries around the globe have inadequate mental health systems and services. Accessibility is a service characteristics experienced by users and their carers and their networks, which enable them to use care where and when it is needed. Access deals with more complex issues, which operate, at the individual, community and governmental and national level. The main factors can be summarized as follows: (1) Structural discrimination in terms of low priority in budgeting, policy and laws; (2) Few available manpower resource; (3) Quality of service and support received; (4) Perception of the quality of service by the service users; (5) Barriers at individual and social levels, which prevents utilization of available services and care. An understanding of the relative contribution of each of the factors highlighted above to the issue of access is necessary and meaningful to build a nuanced picture for an individual or community. The promotion of access to mental health services at parity to physical health services, and by specifying that services need to be provided e.g. through primary health care centers and in general hospitals, mental health legislations in all countries are the basement and they are fundamental.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Abdulaziz, M., Jidda, M., Wakil, M. A., Isah, B., Taiwo, S., & Samuel, A. (2014). Unrecognized psychiatric disorder among patients admitted into general hospital in Maiduguri Northeastern Nigeria. Pan African Medical Journal, 19, 197.
Bährer-Kohler, S. (2016). Person-first language—Aspects of communication in health and mental health settings. International Journal of Community and Family Medicine, 1, 116.
Bernal, G., & Saez-Santiago, E. (2006). Culturally centered psychosocial interventions. Journal of Community Psychology, 34(2), 121–132.
Boydell, K. M., Hodgins, A., Pignatiello, A., Teshima, J., Edwards, H., & Willis, D. (2014). Using technology to deliver Mental Health services to children and youth: A scoping review. Journal of Canadian Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 23(2), 87–99.
Choudhry, F. R., Mani, V., Ming, L. C., & Khan, T. M. (2016). Beliefs and perception about mental health issues: A meta-synthesis. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 12, 2807–2818.
Delay, J., & Deniker, P.‚ & Harl‚ J. M. (1952). Therapeutic use in psychiatry of phenothiazine of central elective action (4560 RP). Annals of Medical Psychology, Paris. 110(21), 112–117.
Das, A. K., Olfson, M., McCurtis, H. L., & Weissman, M. M. (2006). Depression in African Americans: Breaking barriers to detection and treatment. Applied Evidence, 55, 30–39.
Demyttenaere, K. (2004). Unmet need for treatment of mental disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys: The WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium. JAMA, 291(21), 2581–2590. doi:10.1001/jama.291.21.2581.
Dennis, C., & Chung-Lee, L. (2006). Postpartum depression help-seeking barriers and maternal treatment preferences: A qualitative systematic review. Birth, 33, 323–331.
Dixon-Woods, M., Kirk, D., Agarwal, S., Annandale, E., Arthur, T., Harvey, J., et al. (2005). Vulnerable groups and access to health care: A critical interpretive review. Report for the National Co-ordinating Centre for NHS Service Delivery and Organisation R&D (NCCSDO). London: National Co-ordinating Centre for NHS Service Delivery and Organisation. 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016, from http://www.netscc.ac.uk/hsdr/files/project/SDO_FR_08–1210-025_V01.pdf.
Fabrega, H., Jr. (1990). Psychiatric stigma in the classical and medieval period: A review of the literature. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 31(4), 289–306.
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Griner, D., & Smith, T. B. (2006). Culturally adapted mental health interventions: A metaanalytic review. Psychotherapy: Theory Research, Practice, Training, 43, 531–548.
Gulliford, M., Figueroa-Munoz, J., Morgan, M., et al. (2007) What does ‘access to health care’ mean? Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 7, 186–188.
Haghighat, R. (2001). A unitary theory of stigmatisation. Pursuit of self-interest and routes to destigmatisation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 178, 207–215.
Hailemariam, M., Fekadu, W., Selamu, M., Medhin, G., Prince, M., & Hanlon, C. (2016). Equitable Access to Integrated Primary Mental Healthcare for People with Severe Mental Disorders in Ethiopia: A formative study. International Journal for Equity in Health, 15, 121. doi:10.1186/s12939-016-0410-0.
Harper Shehadeh, M., Heim, E., Chowdhary, N., Maercker, A., & Albanese, E. (2016). Cultural adaptation of minimally guided interventions for common mental disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 3(3), e44. doi:10.2196/mental.5776.
Harrison, J., & Gill, A. (2010). The experience and consequences of people with mental health problems, the impact of stigma upon people with schizophrenia: A way forward. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 17(3), 242–250.
Hayward, P., & Bright, J. (1997). Stigma and mental illness: A review and critique. Journal of Mental Health, 6, 345–354.
Hernandez, S. H., Bedrick, E. J., & Parshall, M. B. (2014). Stigma and barriers to accessing mental health services perceived by Air Force nursing personnel. Military Medicine. International Journal of AMSUS, 179(11), 1354–1360. doi:10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00114.
House of Commons–Committee of Public Accounts. (2016). Improving access to mental health services. Clerk of the Committee of Public Accounts, House of Commons, London. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmpubacc/80/80.pdf.
Jidda, M.S., Rabbebe, I.B., Omeiza, B., Wakil, M.A., Ibrahim, A.W., & Pindar, S.K. (2012). The Mental Health system in North-Eastern Nigeria. A WHO-AIMS generated assessment of the state of Mental Health in a Sub-Saharan African region. Nigerian Journal of Psychiatry, 10(3), 2–7.
National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health-UK (2011). Common Mental Health Disorders: Identification and Pathways to Care. National Clinical Guidelines, No. 123. Commissioned by the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence. Published by The British Psychological Society and The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1–310. Retrieved November 20, 2016, from https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg123/evidence/full-guideline-181771741.
NHS England. Department of Health (2014). Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/361648/mental-health-access.pdf.
Pescosolido, B. (2013). The public stigma of mental illness: What do we think; what do we know; what can we prove? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 54(1), 1–21.
Rodríguez, M., Valentine, J. M., & Son, J. B. (2009). Intimate partner violence and barriers to mental health care for ethnically diverse populations of women. Trauma Violence Abuse, 10, 358–374.
Rogers, A., Hassell, K., & Nicolaas, G. (1999). Demanding Patients? Analysing the use of primary care. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Sartorius, N. (2004).The World Psychiatric Association global programme against stigma and discrimination because of stigma. In A. H. Crisp (Ed.), Every Family in the Land (pp. 373–75, Revised edition). London: Royal Society of Medicine Press.
Scambler, G. (1998). Stigma and disease: Changing paradigms. Lancet, 352, 1054–1055.
Scheppers, E., van Dongen, E., & Dekker, J. (2006). Potential barriers to the use of health services among ethnic minorities: A review. Family Practice, 23, 325–348.
Schlosberg, A. (1993). Psychiatric stigma and mental health professionals (stigmatizers and destigmatizers). Medicine and Law, 12, 409–416.
The Guardian News. (2016). NHS mental health funding is still lagging behind, says report. Retrieved November 28, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/09/nhsmentalhealth-funding-is-still-lagging-behind-says-report.
Thornicroft, G., & Tansella, M. (1999). The mental health matric: A manual for improve services. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Van Voorhees, B. W., Walters, A. E., & Prochaska, M. (2007). Reducing health disparities in depressive disorders outcomes between non-Hispanic whites and ethnic minorities: A call for pragmatic strategies over the life course. Medical Care Research and Review, 64, 157–194.
Wittkowski, A., Patel, S., & Fox, J. R. (2016). The experience of postnatal depression in immigrant mothers living in western countries: A meta-synthesis. Clinical psychology and psychotherapy. doi:10.1002/cpp.2010.
Wohler, Y., & Dantas, J. A. (2016). Barriers accessing Mental Health services among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) immigrant women in Australia: Policy implications. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. doi:10.1007/s10903-016-0402-6.
World Health Organization. (2001). The World Health Report 2001—Mental health: New understanding, new hope.
World Health Organization (2002). Reducing stigma and discrimination against older people with mental disorders. Retrieved November 28, 2016, from http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/499.pdf.
World Health Organization. (2005). Mental health atlas: 2005. Geneva: World Health Organization.
WHO-AIMS Report on Mental Health System in Nigeria. (2006). Ibadan: WHO and Ministry of Health. Retrieved November 28, 2016, from http://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/nigeria_who_aims_report.pdf.
World Health Organization. (2009). Improving health systems and services for mental health. Retrieved November 24, 2016, from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/44219/1/9789241598774_eng.pdf.
World Health Organization. (2013). Mental health action plan 2013–2020. Retrieved November 17, 2016, from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/89966/1/9789241506021_eng.pdf.
World Health Organization. (2016). Mental Health Gap Action Plan: 2016. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Take Away Messages
Take Away Messages
-
In all countries of the world, developed and developing, access to mental health service is severely limited. Staff strength of mental health professionals, organization of mental health services, stigma of mental disorders, sociocultural beliefs and capacity of other health professionals to detect and manage/refer mental disorders, among many other factors and influences, act as barriers to accessing mental health services.
-
The Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2020 offers further information’s in the overall context (WHO 2013) and with the input, that persons with mental disorders and psychosocial disabilities should be empowered and involved in mental health advocacy, policy, planning, legislation et al., means to be so far as possible a partner in the field.
-
For more information about principles for organizing mental health services, means e.g. about accessibility, comprehensiveness, continuity and coordination of care and support see e.g. the publication: Improving health systems and services for mental health of the World Health Organization (2009).
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Uwakwe, R., Jidda, S.M., Bährer-Kohler, S. (2017). Access to Mental Health. In: Bährer-Kohler, S., Carod-Artal, F. (eds) Global Mental Health . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59123-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59123-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59122-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-59123-0
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)