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Primary Mental Health Prevention—A Public Health Priority Around the World

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Global Mental Health

Abstract

Prevention of mental health disorders should be a Public Health Priority around the World as an estimated thirty percent of the world population will develop some form of mental health disorder in any one year. More importantly, a substantial number of these people receive no treatment. The observed trend shows that Low and middle Income Countries (LMIC) have more number of people out of treatment even with mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, unipolar depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder among others. Empirical evidence is forming a consensus that primary prevention may delay the onset of mental illness. As of today, evidence linking protective factors with risk factors has been established in the development of mental health disorders which could be the focus in primary mental health prevention. Furthermore, both risk and protective factors are known to have genetic, social, economic, and environmental components interacting to make these determinants a complex one. These dynamics between the protective factors and risk factors culminating in a mental health disorder is the target of primary prevention in mental health disorders. The vision for primary prevention in psychiatry is to incorporate the different levels of primary prevention strategy in mental health prevention globally; thus achieving a worldwide impact. This hopefully will be a catalyst to overcome the gross neglect and lack of political will. Programs such as indicated medication use and psychotherapy among high-risk individuals are now available in the industrialized societies and could be adapted with beneficial effects in the LMIC countries.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medicine, University of Ibadan Nigeria, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Olusegun Baiyewu

  2. Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun, Nigeria

    Bidemi Bello

Authors
  1. Olusegun Baiyewu
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  2. Bidemi Bello
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bidemi Bello .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dr. Bährer-Kohler & Partners, Basel, Switzerland

    Sabine Bährer-Kohler

  2. International University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain

    Francisco Javier Carod-Artal

Take Away Messages

Take Away Messages

  • The highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right of every human being (WHO 2015). The integration of a human rights-based approach to health is at the basement.

  • Prevention of mental health disorders should be a public health priority around the world (WHO 2004a, b).

  • There is evidence that primary prevention is now possible in psychiatric disorders, but studies in this area are limited and most are from industrialized societies.

  • Applicability of such programs to patients in the developing world is yet to be determined.

  • Mental health professionals have a crucial task in providing evidence on prevention of mental health across the globe, engaging relevant stakeholders, and offering professional care in their practice at international standard practice.

  • Obvious deterrents to mental health issues such as stigma, ignorance, poor organization of health system facilities, and other sociocultural factors in low-income countries need to be addressed.

  • Determinants of mental health such as improving maternal and infant health, adequate nutrition , qualified schools providing a nurturing environment and equal opportunity to learn, intentional education of both genders, enhanced socioeconomic securities, and safe living environments as well as policies to ensure these are put in place.

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Baiyewu, O., Bello, B. (2017). Primary Mental Health Prevention—A Public Health Priority Around the World. In: Bährer-Kohler, S., Carod-Artal, F. (eds) Global Mental Health . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59123-0_8

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