Nearly one in every 10 people has a mental health disorder, but just 1% of the global health workforce are working as psychiatrists, occupational therapists or social workers, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed in a report that highlights deepening inequality in access to mental health treatment.
On average, the world’s poorest countries have less than one mental health worker for every 100,000 people, according to the WHO’s mental health atlas 2014. The report warned that mental health treatment is for the most part a privilege only afforded to people in wealthy countries, which averaged 52.3 mental health workers for every 100,000 people.