Africa Knowledge Management Portal
Informing health decisions and actions
Integrating mental health into primary care: A global perspective
Emergency Preparedness
Primary Health Care
Description
As these and other stories in the report poignantly illustrate, primary care starts with people.And, integrating mental health services into primary care is the most viable way of ensuring that people have access to the mental health care they need. People can access mental healthservices closer to their homes, thus keeping their families together and maintaining theirdaily activities. In addition, they avoid indirect costs associated with seeking specialist care indistant locations. Mental health services delivered in primary care minimize stigma and discrimination,and remove the risk of human rights violations that occur in psychiatric hospitals.