article · PLOS Global Public Health
This research challenges the common 'deficit model' in global mental health, which typically focuses on unmet needs and barriers. Instead, it examines the strengths and assets within informal community mental health care systems in Ghana, India, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and South Africa. Drawing on the experiential knowledge of practitioners and researchers through qualitative case studies, the study identifies key existing assets. These include family and community care, as well as support from non-profit and religious organisations. The findings highlight how socio-political contexts and global economic structures significantly influence these local systems. The paper suggests that strengthening these community assets can foster reciprocal relationships between formal and informal mental health sectors, leading to more effective and localised interventions.
This research offers a new perspective on global mental health by focusing on existing community strengths rather than just problems. Recognising and building upon these local assets can lead to more sustainable, culturally appropriate, and effective mental health support, particularly in regions where formal services are scarce or inaccessible.
The abstract does not indicate a direct commercialisation pathway for a product or service. However, its findings could inform the design and implementation of mental health programmes and policies by non-governmental organisations, government health ministries, and international development agencies. It provides a framework for identifying and leveraging existing community resources to improve mental health outcomes, suggesting an application in strategic planning and funding allocation for community-based interventions.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Global mental health [GMH] scholarship and practice has typically focused on the unmet needs and barriers to mental health in communities, developing biomedical and psychosocial interventions for integration into formal health care platforms in response. In this article, we analyse four diverse settings to disrupt the emphasises on health system weaknesses, treatment gaps and barriers which can perpetuate harmful hierarchies and colonial and medical assumptions, or a 'deficit model'. We draw on the experiential knowledge of community mental health practitioners and researchers working in Ghana, India, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and South Africa to describe key assets existing in 'informal' community mental health care systems and how these are shaped by socio-political contexts. These qualitative case studies emerged from an online mutual learning process convened between 39 academic and community-based collaborators working in 24 countries who interrogated key tenets to inform a social paradigm for global mental health. Bringing together diverse expertise gained from professional practice and research, our sub-group explored the role of Community Mental Health Systems in GMH through comparative country case studies describing the features of community care beyond the health and social care system. We found that the socio-political health determinants of global economic structures in all four countries exert significant influence on local community health systems. We identified that key assets across sites included: family and community care, and support from non-profit organisations and religious and faith-based organisations. Strengthening community assets may promote reciprocal relationships between the formal and informal sectors, providing resources for support and training for communities while communities collaborate in the design and delivery of interventions rooted in localised expertise. This paper highlights the value of informal care, the unique social structures of each local context, and resources within local communities as key existing assets for mental health.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0002575
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
