Why mental health services in low- and middle-income countries are under-resourced, under-performing: An Indian perspective

The inadequacies of mental health services in low- and middle-income countries are often attributed to inadequate allocation of resources. This may not be entirely true. The experience in India suggests that a top-down approach to planning, divorced from the ground realities, poor governance, managerial Incompetence and unrealistic expectations from low-paid/poorly motivated primary healthcare personnel play an important role and may result in the failure of even adequately funded programmes. The ambitious National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), launched in 1983 and aimed at providing basic mental health services through the existing primary healthcare system, using the Bellary model, failed to achieve any of its targets over the subsequent decades. In early 2001, the NMHP was radically revamped. It was re-launched as part of the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-07) and the budgetary allocation was increased more than 7-fold. However, the programme faltered due to techno-managerial under-performance and the initial momentum was lost. The reasons for this failure are analysed and possible remedial strategies suggested. While the experience documented in the paper is country-specific and relates to India, it may hold useful lessons for other low- and middle-income countries.