ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the principles and strategies to consider when integrating mental and behavioral healthcare into primary care systems, where psychiatrists and other behavioral health "experts" are scarce. It describes projects that train community health workers and nurses at the village and district levels of care to support primary care practitioners to assess and treat their patients' mental health needs. In most developing countries there is a high degree of stigma attached to mental health disorders. The new minister, along with international colleagues, recognized that the concentration of mental health resources in psychotropic medications and psychiatric hospital beds did not meet the mental health needs of the Vietnamese people. The chapter also describes different institutional domains or "worlds" to organize people thoughts about establishing behavioral medicine in Vietnam or in any developing country. It includes teaching in the clinical domain and public policy in the financial domain.
