Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to make global mental health a priority of her Department.

The UK’s health focus in developing countries is on improving the provision of basic health services for the poor by supporting health system strengthening, health worker capacity and access to essential medicines. Increasing coverage, equity, access and quality will strengthen health services to address all health problems including non-communicable diseases, like mental disorders and dementia.

DFID is helping countries to make fairer, transparent and evidence-based decisions about how to set priorities and allocate resources in health. We are also funding programmes that are directly supporting work on mental health, such as under our Health Partnership Scheme and to Ghana’s Health Sector Support Programme. In addition we support research on mental health through our PRIME (Programme for Improving Mental health carE) programme.