Estimating the cost of implementing district mental healthcare plans in five low-and middle-income countries: The PRIME study

Dan Chisholm*, Soumitra Burman-Roy, Abebaw Fekadu, Tasneem Kathree, Dorothy Kizza, Nagendra P. Luitel, Inge Petersen, Rahul Shidhaye, Mary De Silva, Crick Lund

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Citations (Scopus)
90 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Background An essential element of mental health service scale up relates to an assessment of resource requirements and cost implications. Aims To assess the expected resource needs of scaling up services in five districts in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. 


Method The resource quantities associated with each site's specified care package were identified and subsequently costed, both at current and target levels of coverage. 


Results The cost of the care package at target coverage ranged from US$0.21 to 0.56 per head of population in four of the districts (in the higher-income context of South Africa, it was US$1.86). In all districts, the additional amount needed each year to reach target coverage goals after 10 years was below $0.10 per head of population. 


Conclusions Estimation of resource needs and costs for district-level mental health services provides relevant information concerning the financial feasibility of locally developed plans for successful scale up.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)s71-s78
JournalBritish Journal of Psychiatry
Volume208
Issue numbers56
Early online date1 Feb 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jan 2018

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