ABSTRACT
Paradoxically, due to recent mental health legislation, the mentally handicapped of the developed world find themselves in the same situation as the majority of those in the developing world who never had contact with a mental health service. A survey of the literature and of the situation in Egypt and Lesotho suggests marked coincidence of vagrancy and chronic mental illness. In both the developed and developing world, adequate services to support these people are lacking.
Subject(s)
Ill-Housed Persons , Psychotic Disorders/complications , Social Control, Formal , Community Mental Health Services/statistics & numerical data , Community Mental Health Services/supply & distribution , Community Mental Health Services/trends , Egypt , Female , Forecasting , Humans , Lesotho , Male , Psychotic Disorders/diagnosisABSTRACT
Altogether 26 psychiatrists and other mental health workers, from Colombia, Brazil, Sudan, Egypt, India and the Philippines tried to reach agreement on the classification of 10 case histories, using the International Classification of Diseases (8th revision). The exercise was part of the WHO Collaborative Study on Strategies for Extending Mental Health Care. Conventions, mistakes, differences of opinion and a lack of rules are discussed as causes for disagreement.
