Health priorities: mental health

The second major health priority we’ll consider is mental health. Research has shown that mental health issues account for the most DALYs lost in adolescents and young people, and can be associated with a broader range of health and social outcomes. In this video Dr Mark Jordans considers the context of these problems and what can be done about them.

It’s important to intervene in these kinds of issues during adolescence to prevent or better support their continuation into adulthood, but in many low- and middle-income countries there are few policies, programmes and professionals in place to deal with adolescent mental health. Approaches to reducing the burden might include integration of mental health care into primary health care practices by training non-specialised health workers to detect, diagnose and treat mental health conditions and promoting understanding of mental health issues at the community level.

Think about your country context. What is currently being done to improve mental health well-being of adolescents in schools or communities? What are some of the obstacles you can identify in meeting the mental health needs of adolescents and how would you overcome these obstacles?