Challenging times for mental health services

We are living in significant and challenging times for mental health services across the world. On the one hand, many countries are in the middle of comprehensive reforms of their mental health systems, and these require funding (WHO Europe, 2008). On the other, they are affected by the global financial crisis as regional and national economic recessions threaten to herald a social crisis in many countries. Governments have had to come up with multi-billion-dollar rescue packages. At an individual level, debt status is already high in many countries, owing to falling house prices and high consumption levels, combined with rising commodity prices during the past few years, before the onset of the recession. At a public level, countries will be forced to make stringent cuts in public sector expenditure.