Mental health in scarce-resource settings has received considerable attention in the new millennium, in response to the growing evidence on the burden of mental disorders and their cost-effective treatments. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Health Report 2001, and The Lancet series on Global Mental Health in 2007, are two major initiatives that synthesised the evidence from these settings. While the former highlighted the burden of mental disorders and the large treatment gaps in all countries, the latter described the exciting new evidence on treatment and prevention for many mental disorders, but also the many barriers to scaling up these.
