Access to Mental Health Care in South Asia - Current Status, Potential Challenges, and Ways Out

This book is about access to mental health care in South Asia. South Asia consists of eight countries with low and middle-income backgrounds. The region contains a combined population of about 2 billion, making up about a quarter of the global population. The people of this region share common cultures, beliefs, and behavioral patterns regarding physical and mental health. Among them, about 15% (about 300 million) have been suffering from common mental disorders. However, there is a persisting high treatment gap for mental illness in the region. Hence, despite having a mental illness, only a small percentage of the population is able to have access to essential mental healthcare. Though governments are trying to bridge the gap by improving mental health policies and programs, it is still a major challenge delivering mental healthcare to all people in need. Due to the income category and dual disease burden of the countries, there are some additional enduring challenges like poor funding and research, inadequate and inequitable manpower, huge out-of-pocket expenses, poor mental health literacy, income disparity, and high stigma. This book aims to highlight the issues related to accessing mental health services in a densely populated low and middle-income setting. This book is the first of its kind in comparing and contrasting the delivery status of mental health services in South Asian countries.


Dr. S. M. Yasir Arafat is currently working as an Assistant Professor
of Psychiatry at Enam Medical College and Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
He completed MD in Psychiatry from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib MedicalUniversity, Dhaka and MBBS from the Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka,
Bangladesh. He also did an MPH in Health Economics and MBA in
Marketing. Dr. Arafat has (co)authored more than 300 peer-reviewedarticles and book chapters, and (co)edited several books with
Springer. He has been included in the global 2% researcher list in
2021, 2022, and 2023. He is acting as an editorial member in more than10 leading journals in mental health published by Frontiers, Wiley,
Hindawi, Springer, and Taylor and Francis. His research focused on
suicidal behavior, psychometrics, panic buying, and psycho-sexualdisorders.



Dr. Sujita Kumar Kar is currently working as an Associate Professor of
Psychiatry at King George's Medical University, Lucknow, UttarPradesh, India. He is the editor in chief of Indian Journal of Health,
Sexuality and Culture. He is also the editorial board member and
reviewer of various national and international journals. He haswritten 62 book chapters and more than 450 articles in various
national & international journals, five monographs, and made 70
presentations at various national and international conferences. Hehas been included in the global 2% researcher list released by
Stanford University in 2021 and 2022. His research interests include
brain stimulation, neuropsychiatry, and suicide prevention.