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A survey of the mental healthcare systems in five Francophone countries in West Africa: Bénin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger and Togo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Djibo Douma Maiga  and
Julian Eaton
Djibo Douma Maiga
Affiliation:
Programme National de Santé Mentale, Hôpital National de Niamey, Niger
Julian Eaton
Affiliation:
CBM International West Africa Regional Office, Lomé, Togo, email julian.eaton@cbm-arow.org
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Abstract

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Sub-Saharan Africa has a wide mental health treatment gap, with low levels of access to mental health services. This paper presents the findings of systematic situation analyses carried out in five Francophone countries in West Africa, which are among the poorest in the world. The findings showed low levels of budgetary allocation to mental health, poor health infrastructure (especially at primary level) and unequal distribution of human and financial resources. In this challenging context, there are signs of reform of services, based on international best-practice guidelines and practical considerations such as decentralisation of services, task-sharing and strengthening stakeholder skills to advocate for change.

Type
Research paper
Information
International Psychiatry , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , August 2014 , pp. 69 - 72
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2014

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