Where There is No Psychiatrist

As part of VVAF’s Mental Health Program, staff members are working on a translation of Where There Is No Psychiatrist by Vikram Patel. This translation will be used to improve the understanding of mental health by Vietnamese medical practitioners and improve mental healthcare in Vietnam.

 Where There Is No Psychiatrist is intended to fill a void created by the lack of mental health practitioners in developing countries. In many developing countries, there is a lack of understanding of what mental illness is and as a result, there is a lack of treatment. In many instances, there is only one psychiatrist available to a half a million people and, as a result, the doctor can only help those with the most serious of illnesses, leaving others neglected.

The manual is intended for general health practitioners, community health workers, primary care nurses and social workers. Therefore the language of the manual is simple enough to be understood by a general practitioner yet not oversimplified, preventing individuals from misunderstanding the diversity amongst mental illnesses.

In many developing countries, the concept of a mental illness is not understood and believed to be a western concept. As a result, the manual has to, first, define mental illness before it can explain how it can be identified. Furthermore, the manual aims at simplifying the current system for categorizing mental illness, which contains 24 different categories. Instead, Where There Is No Psychiatrist takes a problem-oriented approach which examines the most important and common problems and then explains how they can be approached. The manual also contains information on integrating mental health into the general health field and allows practitioners to understand how to incorporate mental health into their daily work routine.  In addition, the manual provides a glossary of terms, medicine and symptoms. Where There Is No Psychiatrist compiles a thorough yet simplified approach at identifying and remedying mental health issues that is valuable in the developing world.

The book fits nicely with VVAF’s work, funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, on improving the quality of mental health care in Vietnam. For more information of VVAF’s work or specific programs, please click here. For more information on VVAF’s other programs, please click here.