Essentials of Global Mental Health

This book provides an overall scene of global mental health and includes 44 chapters grouped under eight sections. It is worthy as introductory reference material for both students and professionals in the health sector—in particular, nurses, psychiatrists, social workers, and other frontline staff in the mental health sector. Readers will benefit from learning the definition of global mental health, its differentiation with community mental health, the treatment gaps, the stigma associated with mental illness, and the new models of incorporating mental health into primary care. Essentials of Global Mental Health can also serve policy makers by providing a very basic overview of global mental health and its relevancy to international organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

More broadly, this book covers areas of natural and human-made disasters that largely affect mental health. Specific book chapters provide examples of how the negative impact of these disasters was mitigated. The sections on mental health issues of disadvantaged groups and women are impressive, covering child abuse, child soldiers, drug abuse, sex workers, and violence against women. These issues affect both developed and developing countries, and their coverage can raise awareness for the population at large and perhaps even world leaders. The book also highlights the area of limited resources in low- to middle-income countries in which research on mental health is inadequate.

A limitation of this book is the lack of coverage on situations in population-dense Asian countries such as China and India. Although the contributors to the Essentials of Global Mental Health are from the field of mental health, the straightforward presentation of the book allows it to also serve as a reference book for the general public as well as a vehicle for raising awareness of global mental health issues across countries.