by Chunling Lu, Zhihui Li, Vikram Patel
PLoS Med 15(3): e1002524 – Published: March 9, 2018
12 pp. 1.7 MB
http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?
id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002524&type=printable
One-quarter of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for mental disorders and substance abuse is borne by those 24 years old or younger, the age group that accounted for more than 40% of the world population. Using the aid activities database from the Creditor Reporting System (CRS), the authors estimated the level of development assistance for child and adolescent mental health (DAMH_CA) in 132 developing countries between 2007 and 2015. They conclude that donors invested little in child and adolescent mental health, in both absolute amount and fraction. The donor community should substantially increase DAMH_CA to establish and enhance the capacity for delivering mental health care to this demographic group.
