World Health Organization (WHO) - Updating the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) for Psychosis and Bipolar Disorder

Mental disorders are prevalent in all regions of the world and are a major contributor to premature mortality. The resources that have been provided to treat mental illness are insufficient and unevenly distributed around the world. This leads to a large gap in how and whether mental disorders are treated.

WHO has developed the 'Mental Health Gap Action Programme' to reduce this gap and to enhance the capacity of countries to respond to the growing challenge of increasing mental illness. Evidence-based guidelines are a key component of the program. The first mhGAP guideline was published in 2010 and updated in 2015. The mhGAP guidelines have been used in more than 100 countries and translated into more than 20 languages. WHO regularly reviews the emergence of new evidence and, in light of this, has concluded that it is time to update the mhGAP guideline again for Psychosis and Bipolar disorder.

The project was funded by WHO.