A critical review of the Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development: Time for a paradigm change

Cosgrove, Lisa; Mills, China; Karter, Justin M.; Mehta, Akriti; Kalathil, Jayasree

doi:10.1080/09581596.2019.1667488

Cited by 40 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…This report urged the developed world to assist LMICs in reaching mental health goals set by the Global North, and thus closing the purported “treatment gap” using Western forms of knowledge and intervention (Cosgrove et al, 2019). Critics point to internal inconsistencies between the initial priorities of the report (focusing on social determinants of health) and its suggestions to accomplish them (by essentializing human distress as mental disorders) (Cosgrove et al., 2019).…”

Section: Priorities and Problems Of The Mgmhmentioning

confidence: 99%

The slippery and the sane: Decolonizing psychology through a study of the Indian girl-child

Dhar

2020

Feminism & Psychology

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This article makes a case against the export of psychological intervention, as developed and practiced in the Global North, to the Indian sub-continent. It is based on the premise that differences between these places are not only sociological and cultural but also at the level of the structure of subjectivity. Leaning on my theoretical understanding of the Indian female subject’s constitution and my empirical work on participants in rural Uttarakhand, India, I posit that our call for decolonization cannot be partial.

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Section: Priorities and Problems Of The Mgmhmentioning

confidence: 99%

The slippery and the sane: Decolonizing psychology through a study of the Indian girl-child

Dhar

2020

Feminism & Psychology

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“…By blending public health approaches with clinical treatments, the Lancet Commission's 2018 report passes over equity issues in favor of advocating for 'scaled-up' individualized medical and therapeutic interventions. As a result, Western diagnostic constructs and treatment approaches are privileged, revealing a conception of rights that allows for a 'right to treatment,' but one that fails to consider the rights of service-users to determine the terms under which this treatment occurs (Cosgrove et al 2019). This conception of rights also fails to acknowledge that, with some exceptions, individuals should have the right to refuse treatment.…”

Section: The Lancet Commission's Human Rights Approach To Gmh: Disease Burden Rhetoric and Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pūras advanced the idea that attention should be focused on the global burden of obstacles (such as poverty, unsafe work conditions, violence) rather than the global burden of disease. Reconfiguring the symptoms of oppression and poverty as 'mental disorder' is inconsistent with a rights-based approach (Cosgrove et al 2019;Pūras 2017Pūras , 2019). Yet, the majority of the reports, initiatives, and programs within the MGMH tend to treat the psychological impact of war and poverty as symptoms of individual mental disorders.…”

Section: Decolonizing Human Rights Discourse By Politicizing and Re-moralizing Human Sufferingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cultural Politics of Mental Illness: Toward a Rights-Based Approach to Global Mental Health

Cosgrove

Morrill

Karter

et al. 2020

Community Ment Health J

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The movement for global mental health (MGMH) has raised awareness about the paucity of mental health services, particularly in low-and middle-income countries. In response, policies and programs have been developed by the World Health Organization and by the Lancet Commission on global mental health, among other organizations. These policy initiatives and programs, while recognizing the importance of being responsive to local needs and culture, are based on Western biomedical conceptualizations of emotional distress. In the paper, we discuss how a rights-based approach can promote the voice and participation of people with lived experience into the MGMH. We argue that a human rights framework can be enhanced by incorporating the conceptual approaches of critical inquiry and community mental health. We also discuss how rights-based approaches and service-user activism can productively reconfigure Western psychiatric conceptualizations of distress and provide both a moral and empirical justification for a paradigm shift within the MGMH.

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“…The biopsychosocial model (which actually seems to be a “bio-bio-bio model,” according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) former president [ 9 ], needs a radical overhaul. This model is characteristic mainly of Western or Global North countries; however, there are ongoing efforts and calls to export it globally [ 10 ]. Biologically oriented psychiatric research may eventually, despite the costly failure to date, produce valid biomarkers or mechanistic explanations, but so far, even if it succeeded in expanding our knowledge in neuroscience, it has failed to address the primary goal psychiatric research should serve—helping patients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Mental Health Industry to Humane Care. Suggestions for an Alternative Systemic Approach to Distress

Stupak

Dobroczyński

2021

IJERPH

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The article proposes a rough outline of an alternative systemic approach to mental health issues and of a more humane mental health care system. It suggests focusing on understanding mental distress as stemming from problems in living, using medications as agents facilitating psychotherapy, or as a last resort and short-term help, according to the principles of harm reduction. It argues that understanding drugs as psychoactive substances and studying the subjective effects they produce could lead to better utilization of medications and improvements in terms of conceptualizing and assessing treatment effects. Qualitative research could be particularly useful in that regard. It also advocates a radical departure from current diagnostic systems and proposes a synthesis of already existing alternatives to be used for both research and clinical purposes. Accordingly, a general idea for an alternative mental health care system, based on a combination of Open Dialogue Approach, Soteria houses, individual and group psychotherapy, cautious prescribing, services helping with drug discontinuation, peer-led services and social support is presented. The proposition could be seen as a first step towards developing a systemic alternative that could replace the currently dominating approach instead of focusing on implementing partial solutions that can be co-opted by the current one.

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A critical review of the Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development: Time for a paradigm change

Cited by 40 publications

References 27 publications

The slippery and the sane: Decolonizing psychology through a study of the Indian girl-child

The slippery and the sane: Decolonizing psychology through a study of the Indian girl-child

The Cultural Politics of Mental Illness: Toward a Rights-Based Approach to Global Mental Health

From Mental Health Industry to Humane Care. Suggestions for an Alternative Systemic Approach to Distress

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