Care gap: a comprehensive measure to quantify unmet needs in mental health

Abstract

Aim.Treatment gap refers to the percentage of individuals who require treatment in a country or a defined community but do not receive it due to various reasons. There is widespread acceptance of ‘treatment gap’ as a measure of unmet needs in mental health. However, the term ‘treatment’ carries a medical connotation and implies biomedical treatment (or lack of it) of mental illness and is often interpreted by policymakers, planners and researchers, as well as by non-professional stakeholders as exclusively referring to curative clinical psychiatric interventions. This common interpretation results in the exclusion of a range of effective psychosocial interventions available today. Treatment gap also does not include physical health services for persons with mental illness, a major concern due to the relative frequent yet highly unattended physical comorbidity and early mortality of persons with severe mental illness.Methods & Results.We, therefore, propose a more comprehensive measure of unmet needs.