Mental health is a critically important issue in global health today, and yet does not receive due policy attention. Mental illness will likely affect one in four people within their lifetime and neuropsychiatric conditions now account for 13% of the global burden of disease – with 70% of that burden in low- and middle-income countries. Despite this, mental health has not yet achieved the policy influence that would be proportionate to its burden.
This report applies several theoretical approaches to analyse mental health as a policy issue and the particular challenges it faces. It also applies other supporting analytical approaches regarding the tractability of a policy issue and for assessing the effectiveness of global health networks.
The report focusses on mental health at a global level, but highlights the need for more detailed analysis at a more local level, given that policy traction is highly dependent on local context, actors and systems of decision-making.