Mental Health Services

Mental health services are the forms of help available to people living with mental health difficulties. Some are everyday support near where you live; others are specialist clinical care. They include talking therapies, medical treatment, community and social support, crisis help, and care shaped for children and for older people.

Mental health difficulties are common. The World Health Organization estimates that more than a billion people live with a mental health condition worldwide.¹ Needing support is not a weakness, and many people improve a great deal with the right care.

Services differ from one country to the next. The names change, the staffing changes, and so does the way care is paid for.

What mental health services are

Mental health services cover every kind of professional help for people facing mental health difficulties, and the community and peer support around it.

The range runs from prevention and early support to intensive treatment and long-term care. Services are delivered in homes, clinics, hospitals, schools and community settings.

The World Health Organization describes good mental health care as a coordinated network rather than a single place you go to. Part of it is mental health care inside general health services, often in general hospitals and through primary care.

The network also covers dedicated community mental health services: community teams, psychosocial rehabilitation, peer support and supported living. It includes mental health support in settings beyond health, such as schools and social services.¹ The aim is that most people find help close to where they live, with more specialised care only when it is needed.

Services now favour community-based care wherever possible, and the WHO notes that it is more accessible and more acceptable than institutional care. It protects people's rights better, and it leads to better recovery.¹ Across the world, care is also moving away from long custodial stays in psychiatric hospitals towards these connected community networks.²

Who provides mental health care

Mental health care is delivered by a range of professionals who often work as a team. Titles, training routes and registration rules differ between countries, so the descriptions below are general. What a practitioner may do, and what they are called, depends on the regulator where they work.

Roles and prescribing rights are set nationally, and it is worth checking a practitioner's registration with the relevant body in your country. Our guide on how to find the right therapist explains what to look for. You can also search the TherapyRoute directory for registered practitioners near you or online.

How care is organised: levels of support

Care is usually described in levels, from the least intensive to the most. The aim is to offer help at the lowest level that meets a person's needs, stepping up or down as things change.

• Self-help and everyday support. Looking after sleep, activity and relationships, using trusted information, and drawing on family, friends and community. This is where most people start.
• Primary and general health care. Often the first professional point of contact, such as a family doctor or a primary health clinic. The WHO highlights delivering mental health care here, including through task-sharing, where non-specialist providers take on parts of the work.¹
• Community mental health services. Outpatient therapy, day programmes, community mental health teams, and psychosocial rehabilitation, which helps people rebuild skills and daily life. Supported employment or housing belongs here too. So does assertive community treatment, where a team brings care to people with severe, ongoing needs.
• Hospital care. Assessment and treatment in a general hospital or psychiatric unit when someone cannot safely be supported at home.
• Specialist and longer-term services. Focused care for specific conditions or complex, longer-term needs.

The World Health Organization's model puts the emphasis on the lower, community levels, and most people can then be helped close to home. Hospital and specialist care is kept for when it is genuinely needed.¹²

Talking therapies and other treatments

• Talking therapies. Individual, group, family and couples therapy, offered in many different approaches depending on the need and the practitioner.
• Medication. Prescribed and reviewed by a doctor, usually a psychiatrist or, for some medicines, a family doctor. Any medication is a prescriber's decision made together with you.
• Psychosocial support and rehabilitation. Peer support, supported living and employment, and recovery-focused programmes that help people rebuild everyday life.¹

Treatment is chosen with you, not for you, and it often combines more than one of these. Many mental health conditions respond well to treatment, though how much they ease, and how quickly, varies from person to person.

Crisis and emergency services

When distress becomes an emergency, faster help is available. Crisis services exist for urgent situations. No one has to wait for a routine appointment.

• Emergency services and hospitals. For immediate danger, local emergency services or the nearest hospital emergency department.
• Crisis and suicide helplines. Phone and text lines staffed by trained volunteers or counsellors, available in many countries.
• Mobile crisis teams. Mental health workers who can respond in the community rather than in a hospital.
• Crisis stabilisation and respite. Short stays that offer intensive support and can prevent a hospital admission.

Crisis lines and emergency numbers differ by country. Our worldwide list of crisis and suicide helplines and emergency and ambulance numbers set out where to turn wherever you are. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services straight away.

Services for children and young people

Children and adolescents have their own services, built around families, schools and stages of development.

• School-based support. Counselling and mental health support offered within education settings.
• Early intervention. Help for young people showing early signs of difficulty, before problems become entrenched.
• Family-based treatment. Approaches that involve parents and carers, since family life bears directly on how a child is doing.
• Child and adolescent mental health services. Specialist teams for young people with more significant needs, known by different names in different countries.

Mental health difficulties often begin early. The WHO reports that in 2019 around 14% of the world's adolescents were living with a mental disorder.²

Digital and remote services

Technology has widened how people reach support, which matters where distance, cost or waiting lists make care hard to get.

• Telehealth therapy. Sessions with a practitioner by video or phone.
• Online platforms. Services that connect people with practitioners over the internet.
• Apps and digital self-help tools. Guided programmes and tools for managing mood, worry, sleep and stress.¹

Digital tools can be genuinely useful, but their quality varies, and so does the evidence behind them. They are not regulated in the same way everywhere.

They work best as part of care rather than a replacement for it. In a crisis they are not a substitute for emergency help.

How services are funded and reached

How you reach and pay for mental health care depends heavily on where you live. Common routes include public or tax-funded health systems, national or social health insurance, private insurance, non-governmental and community organisations, and paying directly out of pocket. Some systems ask for a referral from a family doctor, while in others you can approach services yourself.

Real barriers remain for many people. Stigma, cost, distance in rural areas, long waiting lists, shortages of trained professionals, and language or cultural fit can all make care harder to reach.

Access also remains uneven across the world. Around 70% of people with psychosis are treated in high-income countries, compared with 12% in low-income countries; and even there, only one third of people with depression receive formal mental health care.²

Finding the right service for you

Choosing a service starts with a rough sense of what you need: support for a difficult period, therapy for a specific problem, medical treatment, or urgent help.

• Ask about the essentials. A practitioner's approach, registration, availability and cost, and whether sessions are in person or online.
• Think about fit. Language, culture, and simply feeling able to talk to the person matter as much as their credentials.
• Consider the practicalities. Location, transport, waiting times and what you can afford over time.

A conversation with a professional you trust is a good place to start; a family doctor can point you to local options.

Our guide on how to find the right therapist sets out what to consider. You can search the TherapyRoute directory for registered practitioners by country, city and online availability. Our guide to mental health treatment looks at the options in more detail.

Help exists at every level, from a first conversation with a family doctor through to specialist care. Making the first contact is often the hardest part, and the right support can make a real difference.

This article is for general information and is not a substitute for professional assessment, diagnosis or treatment. Mental health services, professional titles and laws vary by country, so check the details that apply where you live. If mental health difficulties are affecting you or someone close to you, consider reaching out to a qualified professional.

References

1. [1] World Health Organization. (2025). Mental health [Fact sheet, updated 8 October 2025]. who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response.
2. [2] World Health Organization. (2022). World mental health report: transforming mental health for all. who.int/publications/i/item/9789240049338.