title: International planning directions for provision of mental health services.
abstract: Internationally, there have been calls for more strategic mental health care delivery. For this to occur, individual countries need to define 'core' mental health services and set evidence-based, country-specific resource targets related to these. Via a web search, we identified 32 current mental health plans from five developed countries. We synthesised descriptive information from these documents, in order to compare profiles of 'core' services, resource targets relating to these services, and rationales for these resource targets. Most plans list 'core' clinical services, typically including a mix of inpatient and community services. Only four plans cite resource targets for these 'core' services, and these are difficult to compare due to different definitional and counting rules. All four provide rationales for the targets, though these vary in strength. The challenge remains for individual countries to develop plans that include appropriate resource targets, and to implement initiatives that move them towards these targets.
authors.affiliation: Program Evaluation Unit, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. j.pirkis@unimelb.edu.au
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pirkis
authors.forename: Meredith
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Buckingham
authors.forename: Harvey
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Whiteford
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Townsend-White
mesh_terms: D006285:Health Planning; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000600:supply & distribution*