Vikram Patel is a psychiatrist with a special interest in global mental health. His passion is to contribute to the goal of improving access to mental health care and and promoting the human rights of people with mental disorders worldwide. The Wellcome Trust has supported his work since 1996 and he has been a Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science since 2005. He is a Joint Director of the Centre for Global Mental Health, a partnership of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with the King's College London. He is based for most of the year in Goa working with Sangath, a local NGO which he co-founded with other local colleagues, and the Government agencies and the Public Health Foundation of India. In 2011, he was appointed to the Government of India's Mental Health Policy group tasked with developing India's first national mental health policy and recommending the design of the National Mental Health Program.

This book is a highly illustrated practical manual for mental health care for the community health worker, the primary care nurse, the social worker, and the primary care doctor, particularly in developing countries. After giving the reader a basic understanding of mental illness, the book goes on to describe more than 30 clinical problems associated with mental illness and uses a problem-solving approach to guide the reader through their assessment and management. The final section provides quick reference information for common problems and it also includes chapters for the reader to personalize the manual for a particular location. Also included is a practical guide to the use of psychiatric medicines and simple psychological treatments.