Shortage of Human and Infrastructural Resources Are Main Challenges in Delivering Mental Health Care

While the training is timely, there are other challenges that mental health practitioners and caregivers face. Nurse Iveth Quintanilla indicated that shortages in human and infrastructural resources are among the main ones.

Iveth Quintanilla

Nurse Iveth Quintanilla, Mental Health Coordinator, Ministry of Health & Wellness

“We lack the amount of personnel that is necessary to provide the adequate services in mental health. Also, we have limited infrastructure, like the hospitals, halfway houses, forensic units, those are what we are lacking in country. The Mental Health Action training will definitely strengthen the services in mental because it is an integration of mental health into primary healthcare so we are strengthening the skills of primary healthcare officers in order for them to be able to assess, to diagnose and to treat patients as well.”