About the Online Mental Health Community

The Online Mental Health Community is an initiative of GIP. GIP (Global Initiative on Psychiatry) is an international not-for-profit organisation for that seeks to promote humane, ethical and effective mental health care throughout the world. Its international office is located in Hilversum, The Netherlands. For more information about GIP click here.

The online community was created as part of a two-year project financed by the European Commission called: Increasing Recognition of Mental Heath as an Integral Part of European Development Assistance in Four EU Countries.

The aim of this web-platform is to establish a community that connects people working on, or interested in mental health issues worldwide, in order to improve mental health care in Low and Middle-Income Countries.

GIP believes that every person in the world should have the opportunity to realize his or her full potential as a human being, notwithstanding personal vulnerabilities or life circumstances. Every society, accordingly, has a special obligation to establish a comprehensive, integrated system for providing ethical, humane and individualized treatment, care, and rehabilitation, and to counteract discrimination against people with mental disorders.

The reality in most Low and Middle-Income Countries is that people with mental problems and disorders lack sufficient care and support and are excluded from work, housing and social interactions. And people working in the field of mental health in low-income countries often lack proper funds, salaries and opportunities to update their knowledge and treatment procedures.

Investing in Mental Health care is an important key to poverty reduction. Poverty and poor mental health interact in ways that harm individuals, families and entire communities. But in spite of the growing international awareness about this negative economic and social impact of the mental illnesses, most governments still fail to see mental health as a priority, which means that in most if not all programs in the field of development aid mental health is not a key issue on the list.

We believe that the lack of connection between the worlds of development aid and mental health can be changed, and needs to change, and that mental health programs need to become an integral part of developmental policies worldwide.