There is not much literature on the counselling profession in the Maldives as the mental health system is limited and it is poorly organised and coordinated. The central authority to oversee the mental health system in the Maldives is the Ministry of Health (MoH). To improve the mental health system and the counselling profession in the Maldives, the Ministry of Health (MoH, 2016) came out with a National Mental Health Strategic Plan (NMHSP). It sets out the directions for the attainment of an optimal mental health system in the Maldives from the year 2016 to 2021.
The NMHSP came out with three strategic action areas (MoH, 2016). The first area focuses on building strong leadership and governance structures for mental health services (MoH, 2016). The aim is to raise more funds to let the plan work and to control and improve the quality of national mental health services to deal with mental health issues.
The second strategic action area is to develop a network of community-based mental health services with a strong referral system (MoH, 2016). Here, the MoH will establish more mental health services, for example, regional hospitals and specialist and psychiatric services. Several programmes will be held for the development of school counsellors and organization.
The third strategic action area emphasized on multi-sectoral collaboration in promoting, preventing, and managing mental disorders (MoH, 2016). The actions include campaigns and publishing mental health-related information on social media to increase awareness about mental health. Also, the action plan will set up support groups in the Maldives and give training to group leaders and other professionals to make sure there are enough experts to fulfil the needs of the people.