ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the models for social entrepreneurship in mental health in low-and lower-middle-income countries (LMIC), which grew out of intensive case studies with some of the leading examples globally. This model of practice describes the kind of non-specific, culturally and contextually driven approaches that, arguably, are the best enablers of scaled, technical interventions propagated in the global mental health (GMH) movement. The chapter provides case studies to illustrate the key emerging elements of social entrepreneurship and explores a system dynamics model of mental health intervention in LMICs. Some have suggested that the GMH movement is imposing a Western, biomedical conceptualisation of mental illness and treatment that pathologises individuals for normal reactions to social determinant-driven problems. Livelihoods—having the means to secure life’s necessities—have been firmly established as central to community-based interventions generally. The provision of concrete and mutually beneficial paths to address mental health challenges extended to policy-makers as well.
