Barriers and Facilitators to Enhancing Mental Health Service Provision, Access, and Utilization
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Care Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2027 | Viewed by 208
Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Mental health conditions are among the leading causes of disability worldwide, yet substantial gaps persist in the availability, accessibility, and utilization of mental health services. Across diverse settings, populations continue to face barriers to receiving timely, appropriate, and high-quality care, while providers and health systems encounter challenges related to workforce capacity, financing, infrastructure, policy, and implementation. At the same time, emerging innovations, community-driven approaches, integrated care models, and system-level reforms offer promising opportunities to strengthen mental health service delivery and improve outcomes. This Special Issue seeks to advance our understanding of the barriers and facilitators that influence mental health service provision, access, and utilization across populations and contexts. We welcome empirical studies, systematic reviews, implementation and evaluation research, policy analyses, methodological papers, case studies, and commentaries/viewpoints that examine factors affecting the delivery and uptake of mental health services. Submissions may focus on individual, community, organizational, health system, or policy-level determinants and may address prevention, treatment, recovery, and long-term support services. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, workforce development, health equity, stigma reduction, integrated and collaborative care, digital mental health, community-based interventions, implementation strategies, service quality, financing, policy reform, and health system strengthening. By bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives and evidence from across the globe, this Special Issue aims to identify actionable strategies for improving the availability, accessibility, quality, and utilization of mental health services and ultimately reducing unmet mental health needs.
Dr. John Pateña
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- mental health care
- mental health services
- mental health access
- service utilization
- health systems strengthening
- health equity
- community-based mental health
- global mental health
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