COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH IN PESHAWAR, THE NEED TO REFORM
Abstract
Community mental health is a neglected field in many developing countries including Pakistan.Common mental disorders are high in prevalence, particularly in women. Community mental healthservices are lacking in Peshawar, which faces a number of challenges owing to sociopoliticalinstability. The aim of this literature review is to evaluate and interpret current research relevant tocommunity mental health reform, including a review of the evidence regarding community mentalhealth service. A selected review of published literature was undertaken using the PubMed, PsychINFOand Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews databases. The intervention studies included in thisreview demonstrate that community based mental health services closely aligned with primary careservices have the potential to facilitate improvements in access to care and also improvements in mentalhealth outcomes. It concludes that lack of proper mental health policy and non-integration of mentalhealth in primary health care adversely affects the outcome of mental health progress in community.References
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