Oman has been recognised as the leading country in terms of recent developments in public health. However, there is a shortage of mental health services, which poses challenges for people seeking such services, particularly those from rural areas. This often results in delayed treatment and longer periods of untreated mental illness.

The first article written about psychiatric services in Qatar was published in BJPsych International in 2006. Since then, the health system in Qatar has undergone significant transformation in the areas of service delivery, research and education. International accreditations are sought in all these fields to emphasise the standard achieved. In this article, we follow up on the mental health services currently available in Qatar, their strengths and the associated challenges.

The inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in typical educational settings has only recently gained momentum in Greece, responding to the recommendations of the international conventions. Reform of special education legislation spotlights the inclusion of children with autism in mainstream schools. The principal goal is to accept the diversity and heterogeneity of all students. This paper presents the educational policy for children with ASD in Greece and comments on teachers’ perceptions of inclusion. School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on children's lives and created a new environment with different demands for educational inclusion.

Sri Lanka has faced two major catastrophes in recent history: the civil war (1983–2009) and the tsunami (2004). Furthermore, there is a continuously changing socioeconomic situation which is becoming ever more challenging. Nearly a quarter of the Sri Lankan population is a youth or adolescent, and this age group is particularly vulnerable to adversity. Over the past decade Sri Lanka has acknowledged the need to support these young people and embarked on developing adolescent mental health services, but they require further expansion. This article provides a critical review of the state of current adolescent mental health services in our country and makes suggestions for improvement.

Indigenous people face numerous challenges to their mental health across the world. We consider the situation in Bangladesh, where those living in the remote hill tracts areas of Eastern Bangladesh experience widespread difficulties. Few seek attention for their problems from professional services, in part because of stigma or a lack of awareness that help could be made available, but also because in these remote areas few resources are available. We make recommendations to improve this situation, which could be implemented with the assistance of primary healthcare services and traditional healers.

We describe mental health services in Luxembourg and how they have evolved over the past 50 years. Health services in Luxembourg are provided through a social health insurance-based system and mental health services are no exception. Additional services are offered through mixed-funding avenues drawing on social care budgets in the main. Luxembourg is closely connected with neighbouring countries, where a large proportion of its workforce live. No run-through medical training exists and the entire medical workforce, including psychiatrists, have trained in other countries. This is reflected in a rich but often non-uniform approach to the provision of psychiatric care.

A wide range of medications are being misused by people the world over and Sri Lanka is no exception. Reasons for this misuse are manyfold. Regulatory bodies, prescribers, dispensers, as well as the general public, have significant roles to play in mitigating the misuse of prescribed medications and their harmful consequences.

The history of psychiatry as a discipline in Nepal has been poorly studied. We have attempted to summarise historical landmarks to explore how it began and its evolution over time in relation to contemporary political events. Although Nepal has achieved several milestones, from establishing a psychiatric out-patient department with one psychiatrist in 1961 to having more than 500 psychiatric in-patient beds with 200 psychiatrists by 2020, the pace, commitment and dedication seem to be slower than necessary: the current national mental health policy dates back to 1996 and has not been updated since; there is no Mental Health Act; the number of psychiatric nurses and in-patient psychiatric beds has increased only slowly; and there is a dearth of professional supervision in rehabilitation centres. Thus, despite making significant progress, much more is required, at greater intensity and speed, and with wide collaboration and political commitment in order to improve the mental health of all Nepali citizens, including those living in rural areas and or in deprived conditions.

Mental health is a significant factor for a sound and productive life; nevertheless, mental disorders do not often receive adequate research attention and are not addressed as a serious public health issue in countries such as Bangladesh. Part 1 of this two-part profile describes the current situation of mental health in Bangladesh in its wider sociocultural context, outlining existing policies and highlighting mental illness as a neglected healthcare problem in the country using a narrative synthesis method. The prevalence of mental disorders is very high and augmented in nature among different population groups in Bangladesh. A lack of public mental health facilities, scarcity of skilled mental health professionals, insufficient financial resource distribution, inadequately stewarded mental health policies and stigma contribute to making current mental healthcare significantly inadequate in Bangladesh. The country has few community care facilities for psychiatric patients. Furthermore, the current mental health expenditure by the Bangladeshi government is only 0.44% of the total health budget. Less than 0.11% of the population has access to free essential psychotropic medications.

This is the second of a two-part profile on mental healthcare in Bangladesh. It describes the state of mental health research in the country and presents a set of priorities for addressing improvements to the fundamental gaps in mental healthcare highlighted in part 1. Focus on building infrastructure for public mental health facilities, training skilled mental health professionals, adequate distribution of financial resources and addressing stigma are all priorities that will contribute to significantly improving mental healthcare in Bangladesh.

When compared with other Asian countries, psychiatric education and training in Sri Lanka has made significant developments during the past two decades, such as introducing psychiatry as a separate final year subject in the undergraduate medical curricula. However, further developments in psychiatric training in medical education are needed.

This paper concerns mental health services in The Gambia. It describes local concepts, experiences and knowledge about mental illness and the implications of such beliefs and attitudes for access to mental health services. A pretested questionnaire and interview guide were administered to a sample of patients/family members. Barriers to accessing mental health services were identified. These included beliefs about the causes of mental illness; family decision-making; the scarcity and high cost of services. Obtaining access to mental health services in The Gambia is currently challenging. Importantly, increased community and family education about the causes and treatment of mental illnesses will be required to address these issues.

Paraguay is a landlocked country in South America. It is a democratic low-middle-income nation, and the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare is responsible for its healthcare system. Mental health services receive just 1–2% of healthcare budgets, and there are only 1.6 psychiatrists per 100 000 inhabitants. There are insufficient resources to adequately assess and treat mental disorders in high-risk populations such as children, adolescents and prisoners. Despite several improvements to mental health policies within the past two decades, the nation still lacks a Mental Health Act and specific policies required to optimise the mental health of the population.

An undercurrent of change is occurring in Qatar's approach towards mental healthcare. In the past 5 years, significant attention has been given to community care initiatives. There is much progress to be made, but the provision of psychiatric support outside of hospitals, the launch of several community services and the tackling of the associated social stigma represent a marked step away from the norm that has usually pervaded in the region. This article analyses these changes and identifies the challenges that remain.

This paper summarises the impact of a new triage process on referral prioritisation and waiting times in a community specialist child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) in Qatar. The process involves initial review of referrals by a CAMHS nurse to ensure that there is adequate clinical information, obtaining additional information from patients/families and referring clinicians by the psychiatric triage team, when necessary, followed by prioritisation and allocation of accepted referrals. The new process reduced the acceptance of inappropriate referrals, ensured prioritisation of referrals and significantly improved the service's compliance with waiting-time deadlines.

There is an increasing prevalence of mental disorders in Malaysia, with a growing need to improve access to timely and efficient mental healthcare to address this burden. This review outlines the current legislative framework and the challenges of delivering mental healthcare and treating mental disorders in Malaysia.

The Roma people are one of the most unknown and interesting nations in Europe. Although they are severely marginalised within European societies, they have greatly influenced European culture. Despite this fact, there is a deep prejudice against them. In the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, a significant proportion of the population are Roma. Their marginalisation leads to many problems and also affects their mental health. Their psychopathological manifestations differ from the majority population. They express more somatic complaints and higher overall stress in a histrionic background. The main obstacles regarding their mental health issues and treatment appear to be the following: gender inequality, illiteracy and lack of cultural sensitivity in healthcare system. Although all of these obstacles must be removed, some are easier to remove than others. Cultural sensitivity could be applied by using more culturally sensitive diagnostic tools, improving overall training for mental health professionals and treating Roma wherever they seek help, because they often have a nomadic style of living. Telemedicine can be quite useful in serving this goal. Improving their educational status and addressing gender inequalities issues, on the other hand, are more difficult and long-term goals.

Although training in psychotherapy is an integral part of psychiatry training, standards in psychotherapy training have wide variation across and within countries. Post-graduate psychiatry training has been conducted in Nepal for over two decades, but little is known about its psychotherapy training provisions. An online survey was conducted with early career psychiatrists in Nepal. The findings show that the majority recognised psychotherapy training as important and were eager to pursue further training. However, two-thirds had no access to psychotherapy training opportunities. These results highlight the need to improve access to training in different psychotherapy modalities in Nepal.

This paper describes the current state of mental health services in Nepal and reflects on the significant changes over the past decade. The main challenges to overcome are proper implementation of community-based services, the high suicide rate, stigma of mental illness, financial constraints, lack of mental health legislation and proper utilisation of human resources.

Sri Lanka boasts of making significant strides in the indicators of maternal healthcare during the past few decades. However, these indicators mostly look only at the physical well-being of women. Lack of awareness regarding maternal mental health problems among grass-root level healthcare workers, poor integration of services, and the culture and stigma regarding perinatal mental disorders are barriers to improving services in maternal mental healthcare in Sri Lanka.