Persons with serious mental illness and their families in low- and middle-income households continue to face important challenges and barriers to care. In Azerbaijan, the needs of individuals with serious mental illness have been studied to gain insight for improvement of mental health policy and research. This column describes needs assessment work by the National Mental Health Center, located in Baku, as well as lessons learned and further recommendations regarding better targeted, culturally informed, and person-centered care. In particular, the authors emphasize the importance of gender and socioeconomic disparities in care provision, disparities that have a significant parallel in other post-Soviet Eastern European and Central Asian countries.
Keywords: Community mental health services; Mental health systems/hospitals; Patient needs; Schizophrenia.