The Commission gratefully acknowledges the contribution of data on psychotherapies from Pim Cuijpers, the Global Burden of Disease from Harvey Whiteford, and inputs received from William Eaton on some of the content. We also acknowledge the role of the Lancet editors (Niall Boyce and Helen Frankish) who provided important feedback through the process of developing the Commission. Research administration of the Commission was coordinated by Deepti Beri (Public Health Foundation of India and Sangath).We acknowledge the role of research team members of the working groups who provided assistance with literature searches, drafting and data extraction and helping prepare figures, namely

No abstract

No abstract

BackgroundMozambique has gradually changed its action on mental health (MH) from an asylum-centric care with long-term hospitalization to an innovative approach to community and primary care.ObjectiveTo collect essential information on Mozambique’s MH system for decision making, to improve quality of services delivered, update MH Strategy and Action Plan.MethodThe study used the WHO-AIMS to assess MH systems including policy and legislation, organization of services, MH in primary care, human resources, public education and link with other sectors, monitoring and research. A comparative analysis was conducted to present the evolution of relevant data from 2010 to 2014.ResultsThere are two psychiatric hospitals in the country and beds in general hospitals. In the period, the number of beds in general hospitals remained stable (203), and the beds in psychiatric hospitals increased from 173 to 298. Mental health outpatient facilities have increased from 83 to 152. The number of psychiatrists (9 in 2010, and 10 in 2014) remained very low, with a significant increase in the number of psychologists (56–109) and occupational therapists (2–23). The number of Psychiatric Technicians has increased from 66 in 2010, to 241 in 2014. This increase allowed the mental health network to expand from 60 to 135 Districts, meaning an increase of coverage from 44 to 100 % of the country districts.ConclusionThe task-shifting strategy focused on services delivered in primary care by psychiatric technicians, mid-level professionals, allowed the expansion of mental health services for all the country districts and the reduction of treatment gap in Mozambique.

The current treatment gap in mental health care in Latin America and the Caribbean remains wide. Further, current data likely greatly underestimate the number of untreated individuals. The epidemiological transition and changes in the population structure will further widen the treatment gap in Latin America and the Caribbean unless mental health policies are formulated or updated and programs and services are expanded.