Why is collaboration essential in mental health care?

In all countries, developing mental health care for the entire population is a challenge. Accessibility, acceptability, price, and stigma are all common issues. Over the last three centuries, there has been progress in moving the placement of mental health services from jails to asylums to psychiatric hospitals to general hospitals to community care centers. Creating mental health care poses both global and local issues. Collaboration between countries has advantages. Collaboration has already been used to develop creative ways to care, instruments for assessing the impact of services, training technique, and evaluation of the impact of interventions.

Collaboration allows for the sharing of diverse experiences and skills, the expansion of populations, and the understanding of variations that influence the development of mental health care. In the past, the World Health Organization has pioneered collaborative ventures. The recent establishment of mhGAP Guidelines for non-specialists demonstrates the importance of teamwork. The World Psychiatric Association advocated stigma reduction by bringing together more than 20 countries. Another example is the Grand Challenges Canada initiative. India has contributed to the advancement of mental health services by emphasizing the importance of family in mental health care, integrating mental health with general health care, demonstrating the efficacy of community care, revitalizing traditional practices such as yoga/meditation, and presenting a novel approach to psychotherapy. Collaboration between nations to create mental health services benefits all parties involved and need to be used more frequently.