Development of holistic mental health care for middle-aged and old age people in Uganda.

Despite the fact that Uganda has an enabling national mental health policy framework, there are clear gaps in mental health service delivery as less than 1% of the health budget is spent on mental health.
Mental health services in Uganda are poorly resourced and treatment rates for people with mental dis-orders remain low, with treatment gaps over 90%. While The Government of the Republic of Uganda comprehensively developed the National Policy for Older Persons in 2009, no attention is given to the
specific needs of middle-aged and older people with mental health problems. Secondly, there is a high need for increasing the awareness of policymakers and health care professionals for the importance of considering physical health issues in middle-aged and old age people with mental health problems. 

Treatment is currently mainly based on expensive and unfordable pharmacotherapy that has important somatic side-effects. There is a lack of local evidence for the implementation of low-cost lifestyle interventions in the mental health care system in general and for middle-aged and old age people with mental health problem specifically.