The South Asian region is one of biggest providers of specialist mental health human resources to rich countries, but paradoxically mental health systems in this region are highly inadequately resourced which has resulted in a huge treatment gap of around 90 %. In this chapter, we review the current status of mental health programs and policies in South Asia, highlight the progress made and identify the continuing challenges (and potential solutions) that need to be addressed urgently to close the treatment gap in the near future. In order to address the huge and largely unmet burden of mental health disorders in the region, it is essential to scale-up evidence-based interventions by progressively strengthening existing mental health systems. The implementation of mental health programs at national level is very poor in most of the South Asian countries. Planning of mental health programs should be based on robust situational analysis and needs assessment and the components of mental health program should be integrated with other national health programs. Political commitment to improve public mental health resource allocation, a strong mental health policy framework with strategies for efficient implementation, equitable distribution of human and financial resources, increasing the demand for mental health services and contextualization of mhGAP guidelines and it’s delivery through an emphasis on task sharing and active involvement of the NGO and private sector are some of the approaches that can address the barriers in scaling-up of mental health services.
