Training Primary Health Workers for Mental Health Care — A Philippine Experience

Abstract

There continue to be intensified efforts to search for ways and effective methods of extending mental health care to a greater number of the population, despite advances in the development of psychiatric services. This is especially so in developing countries. In these countries whatever mental health care is available continues to be accessible only to a minority of the population, such care being mainly concentrated in the cities and large towns. Hence, a WHO Expert Committee (1) has reported that forty million men, women, and children suffer from untreated mental disorders.