---
id: "coronavirus-smarter-crowdsourcing:strategies/Create-a-national-mental-health-plan-to-guide-the-"
type: "GovLab policy strategy"
title: "Create a national mental health plan to guide the implementation of the resulting legislation and regulations"
url: "https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/strategies/create-a-national-mental-health-plan-to-guide-the-"
summary: "Create a national mental health plan to guide the implementation of the resulting legislation and regulations"
source: "The GovLab (coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org)"
licence: "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)"
---

# Create a national mental health plan to guide the implementation of the resulting legislation and regulations

Create a national mental health plan to guide the implementation of the resulting legislation and regulations

- Timeframe: 3-6 Months (medium)
- Audience: Government Workers
- Type: Research, Policy/Legislative/Regulatory, Capacity Building
- Recommendation: [Government capacity and regulatory environment](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/recommendations/government-capacity-and-regulatory-environment)
- Part of: [Smarter Crowdsourcing in the Age of Coronavirus](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/)

## Actions governments should take

1. Identify national or subnational priorities, goals, and/or objectives pertaining to prevention, screening, assessment, and treatment of mental disorders and behavioral conditions.
2. Articulate them clearly in the plan, with specific timelines and indicators to measure these outcomes and objectives.
3. Consider the needs of populations that may be experiencing disparities in access, treatment and mental health outcomes. For example, racial/ethnic minority populations, poor populations, and rural communities may be less likely to have access to care and more likely to receive lower-quality care.
4. Ensure that implementation plans integrate monitoring, evaluation and learning opportunities into all aspects of new work.
5. Take advantage of natural experiments that have resulted from responses to the COVID-19 crisis, such as quasi-experimental studies of mental health outcomes based on changes in use of telehealth, hotlines, apps, or other innovations that have become prevalent during the pandemic.
6. Ensure the plan outlines such areas as reimbursement rules, patient eligibility criteria for programs, rules regarding what types of services are permitted in certain settings, accreditation requirements, and what types of waivers may be appropriate in certain situations.

## Examples from around the world

1. [Chile established the National Mental Health Plan 2017-2025 that sets out guidelines for the implementation of a community model of mental health care and that also considers the establishment of a legal framework in order to establish a Mental Health law in the upcoming years,](https://www.minsal.cl/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PDF-PLAN-NACIONAL-SALUD-MENTAL-2017-A-2025.-7-dic-2017.pdf)