Mental health care in Kuwait: Toward a community-based decentralized approach

Abstract

A number of international studies have highlighted the prevalence of mental health disorders, and the combined lifetime incidence of mental illnesses has been estimated to be as high as 30 percent worldwide. Due to geopolitical, economic, cultural, and religious factors, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been recognized as being particularly susceptible to the socioeconomic impact of mental health disorders, and our report examines the current state of mental healthcare policies in the Arab world and discusses the administrative/infrastructural and social/cultural challenges faced in the provision of adequate mental health care in Kuwait.

Keywords

Health care Kuwait mental health psychiatry social work

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Almazeedi

Alsuwaidan

M.T.

(2014) ‘Integrating Kuwait’s Mental Health System to End Stigma: A Call to Action’, Journal of Mental Health 23(1): 1–3.

Bale

(2000) ‘A Project to Develop Quality Improvements in the Kuwait Mental Health Service’, Psychiatric Bulletin 24: 111–2.

Baxter

A.J.

Patton

Scott

K.M.

Degenhardt

Whiteford

H.A.

(2013) ‘Global Epidemiology of Mental Disorders: What Are We Missing?’, PLoS ONE 8(6): e65514.

Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) (2001) ‘Canada’s Health Care Providers’. Available online at: https://secure.cihi.ca/free_products/hctenglish.pdf

Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (2006) ‘Licensed Social Workers in the United States, 2004’. Available online at: http://workforce.socialworkers.org/studies/fullStudy0806.pdf

Eaton

Kakuma

Wright

Minas

(2014) ‘A Position Statement on Mental Health in the Post-2015 Development Agenda’, International Journal of Mental Health Systems 8: 28.

Hedrick

S.C.

Chaney

E.F.

Felker

Liu

C.F.

Hasenberg

Heagerty

Buchanan

Bagala

Greenberg

Paden

Fihn

S.D.

Katon

(2003) ‘Effectiveness of Collaborative Care Depression Treatment in Veteran’s Affairs Primary Care’, Journal of General Internal Medicine 18(1): 9–16.

Kuwait Ministry of Health (KMH) (2013) World Health Survey in Kuwait: Main Report 2013. Kuwait: KMH.

Okasha

Karam

(1998) ‘Mental Health Services and Research in the Arab World’, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 98(5): 406–13.

10.

Okasha

Karam

Okasha

(2012) ‘Mental Health Services in the Arab World’, World Psychiatry 11(1): 52–4.

11.

Racy

(1970) ‘Psychiatry in the Arab East’, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 211: 1–171.

12.

Scull

N.C.

Khullar

Al-Awadhi

Erheim

(2014) ‘A Qualitative Study of the Perceptions of Mental Health Care in Kuwait’, International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation 3(4): 284–99.

13.

Votruba

Eaton

Prince

Thornicroft

(2014) ‘The Importance of Global Mental Health for the Sustainable Development Goals’, Journal of Mental Health 23(6): 283–6.

14.

Wang

P.S.

Aguilar-Gaxiola

Alonso

Angermeyer

M.C.

Borges

Bromet

E.J.

Bruffaerts

de Girolamo

de Graaf

Gureje

Haro

J.M.

Karam

E.G.

Kessler

R.C.

Kovess

Lane

M.C.

Lee

Levinson

Ono

Petukhova

Posada-Villa

Seedat

Wells

J.E.

(2007) ‘Use of Mental Health Services for Anxiety, Mood, and Substance Disorders in 17 Countries in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys’, The Lancet 370(9590): 841–50.

15.

Whiteford

H.A.

Degenhardt

Rehm

Baxter

A.J.

Erskine

H.E.

Charlson

S.J.

Norman

R.E.

Flaxman

A.D.

Johns

Burstein

Murray

C.J.L.

Vos

(2013) ‘Global Burden of Disease Attributable to Mental and Substance Use Disorders: Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010’, The Lancet 382(9904): 1575–86.

16.

World Economic Forum (WEF) (2011) The Global Economic Burden of Non-communicable Diseases. Geneva: WEF.

17.

World Health Organization (WHO) (1996) Guidelines for the Promotion of Human Rights of Persons with Mental Disorders. Geneva: WHO.

18.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2000) ‘Cross-national Comparisons of the Prevalence and Correlates of Mental Disorders. International Consortium in Psychiatric Epidemiology’, Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78: 413–25.

19.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2001) The World Health Report 2001. Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope. Geneva: WHO.

20.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2006) ‘Health System Profile: Kuwait’, Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office. Available online at: http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/documents/s17297e/s17297e.pdf

21.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2011a) ‘Mental Health Atlas 2011: Kuwait’, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Available online at: http://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/atlas/profiles/kwt_mh_profile.pdf

22.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2011b) WHO Mental Health Atlas 2011. Geneva: WHO.

23.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2011c) World Report on Disability. Geneva: WHO.

24.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2013a) Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases 2013–2020. Geneva: WHO.

25.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2013b) Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2020. Geneva: WHO.

26.

World Health Organization (WHO) (2014) Kuwait - Country Cooperation Strategy at a Glance. Available online at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/136906/1/ccsbrief_kwt_en.pdf