IN ANY GIVEN year one person in six is afflicted by a mental illness. Most cases involve mild-to-moderate depression or anxiety. Some sufferers recover on their own. For many, however, the condition is left untreated and may become chronic or severe. In the past social stigma meant that people kept their pain to themselves. The stigma is now melting away. Yet in rich Western countries two-thirds of people with a mental-health problem do not receive any treatment for it. In poor countries hardly any do. And almost everywhere, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists are scarce. Often they are the only people whom states or insurers will pay to treat mental illness, so those who seek help must wait months for it. The cost in human misery is huge. Mental-health care needs to change.
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