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Mental health in primary care

Focus on the Third World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

O. O. Famuyiwa*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, PMB 12003, Lagos, Nigeria
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The expression primary health care (PHC) gives the impression of an ensemble of control of communicable diseases, infant care, avoidance of insanitary personal habits and curbing environmental pollution. These indeed constitute the main elements of the scheme but are not exclusive to it. An integral but often ignored aspect is the community dimension of mental health whose importance is underscored by the fact that a significant majority of people in the third world live in rural areas with minimal or no access to formal psychiatric facilities. In this paper, I shall review the conceptual framework and practicality of primary health care with special reference to community mental health, highlight some notable limitations to policy execution and finally propose an organisational model structure for the community mental health services within the primary health care system.

Type
Articles
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989

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