Welcome to the 22nd WCP Congress Program Scheduling

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Mental Health Development in Bhutan – Challenges and Opportunities

Bhutan is popular for its development philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which was conceived by the 4^th king of Bhutan in the 1970s to emphasize people-centered development over pursuing material achievement. Happiness, satisfaction, and contentment with life are the core principles of this philosophy.

Modern development in Bhutan began only in the 1960s with health, education, road, and agriculture as priority activities, to begin with. In over six decades, Bhutan has achieved remarkable progress in all spheres of development, especially health. Today, Bhutanese enjoy a good quality of life and free health care services.

Modern Mental Health (MH) development in Bhutan began in the late 1990s with a handful of trained MH professionals with the policy to provide community-based MH services through a strategy of training Primary Health Care (PHC) workers on basic counseling and prescription of simple psychotropic medications. Today, the majority of PHC workers are trained and psychotropic medications are available in all PHCs and provided free to the people.

Major challenges are stigma related to MH discouraging treatment and low competency in healthcare workers providing adequate treatment. The COVID-19 situation has caused major setbacks in service delivery and an increasing number of cases.

The Royal Government of Bhutan has shown strong support for strengthening mental health development in the country. The Queen has taken up the task of mental health development in the country under her direct patronage recently in response to the increasing number of cases.

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Until now, child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) has had many advocates but a lack of global urgency and the need for more robust funding has so far limited the potential for sustained implementation and scale-up of programs and services. Growing awareness around the importance of mental health and the impact of COVID-related prevention policies, particularly in humanitarian settings, have combined to create fresh momentum around wellbeing concerns for the world’s children, youth and caregivers’ mental health.

The serious gaps that exist in mental health care are a result of historic under-investment in, and lack of action on, the promotion of positive mental health, and the prevention among, and care for, children, adolescents, and caregivers with mental health problems. This, combined with continued stigma, discrimination, punitive legislation, and human rights abuses, is increasing the urgency to improve access to, and investment in, mental health care for all. Worldwide, the majority of those who need mental health care do not have access to good quality support and services. The magnitude of the mental health burden the world faces is simply not being matched by the response it demands.

There is growing awareness about the need for more holistic and community-based approaches in all aspects of mental health care and psychosocial support and development, including system strengthening. Dr. Hijazi will present UNICEF's dimensional and life course approach to CAMH which balances treatment, care, and recovery with the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders; reframing mental health as an asset along a continuum of care.