About the Authors
- Shoba Raja
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* E-mail: shoba.raja@basicneeds.org
Affiliation BasicNeeds Policy and Practice Directorate, Bangalore, India
- Chris Underhill
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Affiliation BasicNeeds UK, Leamington Spa, United Kingdom
- Padam Shrestha
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Affiliation Livelihoods Education and Development Society (LEADS), Pokhara, Nepal
- Uma Sunder
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Affiliation BasicNeeds Policy and Practice Directorate, Bangalore, India
- Saju Mannarath
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Affiliation BasicNeeds Policy and Practice Directorate, Bangalore, India
- Sarah Kippen Wood
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Affiliation BasicNeeds Policy and Practice Directorate, Oakland, California, United States of America
- Vikram Patel
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Affiliations Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom, Sangath, Goa, India
Competing Interests
SR, US, SM, and SKW are employed by BasicNeeds, a mental health and development organization. CU founded BasicNeeds. At the BasicNeeds Nepal programme, their partners in Nepal (LEADS) contacted a Nepalese pharma company—Asian Pharmaceutical Company—for assistance in providing medicines to the Users who access services in the programme's operational districts of Baglung and Myagdi in the Western region. As a result, the company agreed to provide free medicines for up to 200 users attending the MH camps organised by LEADS at the district hospitals. They have so far supplied twice. Discussions are currently going on for their continued help and for them to supply directly to the two district hospitals in future. This provision of medicines is done without any formal contractual arrangement with LEADS (or BasicNeeds) and there is no direct financial association between our organizations and Asian Pharmaceutical Company. In a nutshell, the sum total of the association is the provision of free medicines for 200 patients (and possibly more in the future). PS is employed by LEADS, a non-profit organisation which provides medical treatment and other support services to individuals with mental illness. VP is a guest editor of the Global Mental Health Practice Series and was involved in the selection of commissions, including this particular paper, but he was not involved in the peer review or editorial decision making about this article.
Author Contributions
Analyzed the data: SR US SM VP. Wrote the first draft of the manuscript: SR. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: SR CU PS US SM SKW VP. ICMJE criteria for authorship read and met: SR CU PS US SM SKW VP. Agree with manuscript results and conclusions: SR CU PS US SM SKW VP. Created the Model for Mental Health and Development: CU.