A NON-NEGOTIABLE PILLAR: THE ARCHITECTURE OF PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEMS CENTERING MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Abstract

Universal health coverage has become central promise of the global health agenda codified in Sustainable Development Goal 3.8. Despite the fact that mental, neurological and substance use disorder is raising and becoming a global burden of disability, inclusion of mental health within UHC remains globally inconsistent. This chapter advocates the argument that the architecture of the healthcare for all should include mental health awareness, promotions, prevention and treatment within primary healthcare system with adequate finance, workforce and intersectoral action. Based on the Alma-Ata legacy the WHO Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan, and contemporary Lancet Commission evidence, the chapter focus on the current debates on primary care integration, task shift, screening and assessments for common mental disorders and the structural factors of mental well-being. It identifies the financing gap, treatment gap which exceed 70 and in many low and middle socio-economic countries and policy implementation failures at national level policies. The chapter concludes stating that achieving healthcare for all is impossible without addressing mental health as a foundational, indivisible aspect of public health that need reformation and simultaneously caters to the biomedical, psychosocial and political determinants.