Kwame McKenzie - Global Mental Health: The Right Problem But the Wrong Solution? (ASI 2012)
Channel: Transcultural Psychiatry
Date: 2012-12-03

Globalisation is leading to rapid urbanization. This is bringing with it new environments that have significant impacts on mental health. The burden of mental health problems and illnesses is increasingly being identified in low- and middle-income countries, but its clear link to poor infrastructural planning and the poor investment in social capital has not received as much attention. In new urban environments communication, competition and consumption are key values. These lead to predictable stresses on individuals and their communities. The solutions are varied, but the development of more services is not an efficient or even desirable answer. If needs have been generated by inadequate planning of the urban environment, scaling up services to meet the needs to "consumers", professionals and governments is not the solution. The commodification of illness may be understandable in this context but does not speak to the real issue which is how to convince the globalization movement to develop societies that promote health and how business can be made to bear the true costs of their initiatives.