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Table 2 Lancet call for action – selected mental health targets, with core and secondary indicators [15]

From: International Observatory on Mental Health Systems: a mental health research and development network

Core targets and indicators

Ensure that national and regional health plans pay sufficient attention to mental health

1: Presence of official policy, programs, or plans for mental health, either including or accompanied by a policy on child and adolescent mental health

Invest more in mental health care

2: Specified budget for mental health as a proportion of total health budget

Increase trained staff to provide mental health care

3: Mental health and related professionals per 100,000 population

Make basic pharmacological treatments available in primary care

4: Proportion of primary health-care clinics in which a physician or an equivalent health worker is available, and at least one psychotropic medicine of each therapeutic category (antipsychotic, antidepressant, mood stabiliser, anxiolytic, and antiepileptic) is available in the facility or in a nearby pharmacy all year long

Increase the treatment coverage for people with schizophrenia

5: People treated each year for schizophrenia as a proportion of the total estimated annual prevalence of schizophrenia

Secondary targets and indicators

Balance expenditure in hospital and community services

6: Proportion of total mental health expenditure spent on community based services, including primary and general health-care services

Provide adequate basic training in mental health

7: Proportion of the aggregate total training time in basic medical and nursing training degree courses devoted to mental health

Distribute staff equitably between urban and rural areas

8: Proportion of psychiatrists nationally who work in mental health facilities that are based in or near the largest cities

Ensure least restrictive practice

9: Involuntary admissions as a proportion of all annual admissions

Protect the human rights of people with mental disorder

10: Presence of a national body that monitors and protects the human rights of people with mental disorders, and issues reports at least every year

Reduce the suicide

11: Deaths by suicide and self-inflicted injury rate