Challenges Related to Integration of Mental Health Into Primary Health Services

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1.0 Introduction. The goal of Malawi Mental Health Policy is to “Provide comprehensive and accessible mental health care services to all the citizens of Malawi, in line with the National Health Policy and National Health Plan, and fully integrated into the existing Primary Health Services as well as the secondary and tertiary health care services as appropriate”. This is in line with recommendations of the World Health Organization (1984: 32-33), which outlines that governments should take necessary steps to improve mental health care at every organizational level, but especially at community level, through integration with primary health care system, supervision being provided by more skilled personnel and referral services being available for the more difficult type of cases (Middleton and Uys, 2004:64). Integrating specialised health services such as mental health services into primary health care (PHC) is one of WHO’s most fundamental health care recommendations (WHO, 2001). Therefore taking into consideration about the above statement, this paper will describe the current provision of mental health services, composition of primary health care team; it will also discuss the challenges related to integration of mental health into primary health services and lastly explain how mental health services can successfully be integrated into primary health services. 2.0 Current provision of mental health services and composition of primary health care team. 2.1 current provision of mental health services Primary health care is about providing “essential health care” which is universally accessible to individuals and families in the community and provided as close as possible to where people live and work. It refers to the care which is based on the needs of the population. It is decentralized and requires the active participation of the community and

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