The problem:

Although mental illness constitutes a large proportion of the burden of disease in Zambia, it receives inadequate attention. Mental health was not among the twelve priority areas in the National Health development plan and was not provided for in the basic package of services defined by the Ministry of Health. Only 0.38% of health care funding was directed towards mental illness in 2008. Mental health services are lacking in general in general health care, including secondary and primary care levels.

Policy options:

An incremental versus a comprehensive option for integrating mental health into primary care. This option would start with a pilot project introducing mental health services into primary care with a well-designed evaluation prior to scaling up.

Key advantages of this option are:

1- It is possible to make improvements in the plan, if needed, prior to scaling up; 2- The pilot would help ensure that full implementation of the plan achieves its intended objectives and could provide better data for estimating the costs of scaling up; 3- It may be more feasible than rapidly scaling up throughout the country.