E. Camarena-Robles :MENTAL HEALTH AND PSYCHIATRY IN LATIN AMERICA : MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA PERSPECTIVES

The situation of mental health care and psychiatry in Mexico and Central America is very peculiar. The population who lives in this region is close to 200 million people. In the last decade we have seen important advances in their health indicators : increase in life expectancy, high coverage in vaccination, reduction and control of mortality-morbidity by endemic causes. Health systems in these countries consist of three different sectors : private services, social security and public services for the non-insured population and those without access to the private market. The amount of resources aimed to sanitary expenses as a percentage of the gross domestic product is more than 5%, with more than half coming from public resources The average amount of money expended for people’s health care is up to US$ 100 per capita. The available beds for psychiatric patients are more than 1/10,000 people and in most countries the number of psychiatrists is more than 5/100,000 people. The countries have specific legislations for the care for people with mental disorders and in some of them there are resources to give the necessary assistance in primary care, with facilities guaranteeing treatment for poor people.