Global Mental Health: Principles and Practice

Written by about 40 authors who are mental health experts from around the world, the intended audience is those health professionals, in the widest sense, across the globe dealing with mental health problems at a national, community and personal level. It is not specifically aimed at doctors, let alone psychiatrists—more at researchers, practitioners, advocates and funding agencies. The text is therefore not aimed principally at occupational health practitioners. It takes a largely public health rather than clinical approach, covering topics such as culture, ethics and human rights in health care (key to our understanding of our multicultural workforce) concepts of well-being (very topical) and the use of trained workers other than doctors in the management of mental disorders. Much of the book is devoted to the problems of low- and middle-income countries where violence, substance abuse, dislocation and the specific mental health problems of women, children, the elderly and the disabled—sound familiar?—are barely addressed by usually inadequate facilities. Even in modern day Britain it must be clear to any practising doctor that access to treatment for common mental conditions is not easy for those unable to negotiate the system. There are excellent chapters on the history of global mental health, on the classification of mental health disorders—much in the news now with the publication of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Edition 5, mental health promotion, policy, the importance of social capital and the concentration on freedom from disability rather than preventable mortality. There seems very little in the realm of worldwide considerations of mental health that this excellent textbook does not cover in a readable and evidence-informed way. I imagine it will become the bible of global mental health and therefore essential reading for practitioners in that field. Occupational health practitioners will find much of interest and certainly something of relevance to their work within its pages. ★★✩✩ (Reference only)