Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:05:45.320Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A survey of the mental healthcare systems in five Francophone countries in West Africa: Bénin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger and Togo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Djibo Douma Maiga  and
Julian Eaton
Djibo Douma Maiga
Affiliation:
Programme National de Santé Mentale, Hôpital National de Niamey, Niger
Julian Eaton
Affiliation:
CBM International West Africa Regional Office, Lomé, Togo, email julian.eaton@cbm-arow.org
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Sub-Saharan Africa has a wide mental health treatment gap, with low levels of access to mental health services. This paper presents the findings of systematic situation analyses carried out in five Francophone countries in West Africa, which are among the poorest in the world. The findings showed low levels of budgetary allocation to mental health, poor health infrastructure (especially at primary level) and unequal distribution of human and financial resources. In this challenging context, there are signs of reform of services, based on international best-practice guidelines and practical considerations such as decentralisation of services, task-sharing and strengthening stakeholder skills to advocate for change.

Type
Research paper
Information
International Psychiatry , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , August 2014 , pp. 69 - 72
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2014

References

Cohen, A., Eaton, J., Radtke, B., et al (2011) Three models of community mental health services in low-income countries. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 5, 3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Collignon, R. (1978) Vingt ans de travaux à la clinique psychiatrique de Fann-Dakar. [Twenty Years of Work at the Psychiatric Clinic of Dakar-Fann.] Société de psychopathologie et d'hygiène mentale. Available at http://www.rag.sn/sites/psychopathologie.refer.sn/IMG/pdf/Biblio20ansPsy.pdf (accessed July 2013).Google Scholar
Gureje, O. & Alem, A. (2000) Mental health policy in Africa. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 3, 1106.Google Scholar
Gureje, O. & Lasebikan, V. O. (2006) Use of mental health services in a developing country. Results from the Nigerian survey of mental health and well-being. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 41, 44–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McBain, R., Norton, D. J., Morris, J., et al (2012) The role of health systems factors in facilitating access to psychotropic medicines: a cross-sectional analysis of the WHO-AIMS in 63 low- and middle-income countries. PLoS Medicine, 9(1), e1001166.Google Scholar
Patel, V. & Kleinman, A. (2003) Poverty and common mental disorders in developing countries. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 81, 609–615.Google Scholar
WHO (2001) World Health Report Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope. World Health Organization.Google Scholar
WHO (2008) Mental Health Gap Action Programme: Scaling Up Care for Mental, Neurological and Substance Use Disorders. WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.Google Scholar
WHO (2011a) WHO–AIMS Report on the Mental Health System in the Republic of Benin. WHO. Available at http://www.who.int/mental_health/WHO-AIMS_benin_English.pdf (accessed July 2013).Google Scholar
WHO (2011b) Mental Health Atlas. WHO. Available at http://www.who.int/mental_health/publications/mental_health_atlas_2011/en/(accessed July 2013).Google Scholar
World Mental Health Survey Consortium (2004) Prevalence, severity, and unmet need for treatment of mental disorders in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. JAMA, 291, 2581–2590.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.