Public-Private Partnership Model in Digital Mental Healthcare Domain: Way Forward for India and the Developing World

Abstract

In 2019, an estimated one in eight people globally was living with a mental disorder. The (point) prevalence of mental disorders was around 13%. Pre-pandemic, an estimated 970 million people in the world were living with a mental disorder, 82% of whom were in low- and middle-income countries. The treatment gap for severe mental health conditions is a staggering 90% (World mental health report, 2022 ). Post-pandemic, just a year after the pandemic, depressive and anxiety disorders increased by 28% and 26%, respectively. To cover up for such a huge demand and supply gap, it is important to explore various ways of increasing access to mental health services especially in digital domain and make it accessible to masses. The objective of this study is to find ways of collaboration so that digital infrastructure can be utilized maximally for increasing the access to mental health services to everyone including those living remotely. With authors having huge experience of supervising usage of digital services in various verticals and collaborating in both public and private fields at various levels for the last many years, the article highlights the opportunities, challenges, and solutions highlighting the need for all stakeholders to come together for making digital mental health services accessible to the whole population. India and developing countries with their respective resources in public and private sector in the field of mental health must modify existing policies and enhance, upgrade, and utilize the existing digital infrastructure and services in such a way that their public-private partnership (PPP) model thrives in providing uninterrupted digital mental health services with scalable model to the masses by monitoring the operations, getting optimum outcomes, and keeping quality check with solid confidentiality and data privacy ecosystem for people thus increasing access and aiding in high-quality prevention and treatment of mental disorders.

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