Ethiopian mental health strategy: Poor can gain more healthy life years as compared to the rich

Mental and neurological health care has long been neglected in low-income settings. This is a podcast on an article that was published in Health Policy and Planning: “Health Gains and Financial Protection Provided by the Ethiopian Mental Health Strategy: an Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis”.

Read here for the full article: bit.ly/2eiqfkT
Authors of the full article are Kjell Arne Johansson (University of Bergen) Kirsten Bjerkreim Strand (University of Bergen), Abebaw Fekadu (Addis Ababa University) and Dan Chisholm (World Health Organization)
Read the blog here: bit.ly/2dZx8Zp

Questions answered in this podcast are as follows:

a) Your article mentions that mental and neurological health care has long been neglected in low-income settings, why do you think this is the case and what made you focus your efforts on Ethiopia?
b) Could you explain your methodology of extended cost-effectiveness analysis of mental and neurological health care in Ethiopia and the potential impact of providing such a package including cost to the provider as well as individual households?
c) Could you describe your key findings?
d) Could you explain the cost of each package and benefits of each?
e)Finally how well received do you feel such a package would be in Ethiopia with the current policy challenges and what more needs to be done in this regard?

Presenter: Natasha Salaria
Speakers: Kjell Arne Johannson and Abebaw Fekadu
Music: Philipp Weigl - Even When We Fall
Image credit: Rod Waddington

For Health Policy and Planning's other podcast visit: https://soundcloud.com/user-347591104

Twitter: @HPP_LSHTM