For many people suffering from mental health problems, the biggest obstacle to recovery is simply access to a mental health professional. Dr. Vikram Patel joins us to talk about how we can expand access to mental health services by empowering non-specialized healthcare workers to deliver them.
Dr. Vikram Patel on …
… how untreated mental illness affects life expectancy:
“It’s important to recognize that mental health problems are the leading causes of the years lived with disability globally, particularly conditions like depression and schizophrenia. But I think that particular metric seems to ignore the impact that mental health problems have on the years of life lived. That is the impact of mental health conditions on premature mortality. For example, in the Global Burden of Disease Report, no deaths are attributed globally to depression. Not even suicide. … I think this kind of metric lead people to believe that mental health problems are not killer diseases and as a consequence, they also have less priority.”
