MADAGASCAR

There are few primary health clinics on the island that offer more than referrals to l’Hôpital Psychiatrique de Anjanamasina for severe cases, such as paranoid schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder.
Currently in the capital city of Antananarivo only has one institution or asylum known as l’Hôpital Psychiatrique de Anjanamasina that dedicates in treating the mentally ill patients with an equivalent of 120 beds and 60 physicians and nurses. The majority of primary health care doctors have received official in-service training on mental health within the last five years” (World Health Organization, 2011). Anjanamasina provides services for the severely impaired or incapacitated, but the allotments certainly do not suffice for treating the chronic mental ailments experienced within Antananarivo’s city limits, and much less for a population of 22.5 million (CIA World Fact book, 2010). In short, the most significant limit of allopathic mental health services in Madagascar is the dearth of licensed practitioners and funded clinics in which they can function. Before a family can decide whether or not they have the means to purchase chlorpromazine or haloperidol for their ailing loved one, a doctor or nurse must first consult the psychologically afflicted to determine whether her or she even requires some form of therapy. Thus, physical access to mental health services is the primary determinant of an individual’s potential for treatment.