Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Developing Countries: NGO Innovations in India

`A worthwhile collection of experiences from several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) across India in the field of mental health.... A useful sourcebook in gaining insight of the various non-formal efforts in mental health care delivery in India' - Psychological Medicine

In the third world, research evidence shows that mental disorders are amongst the commonest and most disabling health problems in the community. The enormous scale of the burden of mental illness becomes worse because of poor access and availability of appropriate health care for most of the sufferers.

The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have played an important role in filling gaps and innovating new models of health care in under-served populations, but their work has rarely been documented.

This book is the first comprehensive documentation of the NGO movement that deals with mental health problems in India. It has brought together 17 different NGOs from all regions of the country. They deal with a wide range of mental health and allied issues, from severe mental disorders to substance abuse to trauma and violence to suicide prevention and dementia in the elderly. Successes and limitations of each NGO as a service provider have been critically examined.

This book also demonstrates the innovative methods adopted by the NGOs to meet the needs and challenges of mental health. In the last chapter, the editors have drawn lessons from the experience of the NGOs and have linked them to the thematic issues pertaining to the NGO role in mental health services in the country.