Global health. The current scenario and future perspectives

170 10. An Updated Approach to the Concept of Global Mental Health Jorge Ramírez Flores, Rubén Alvarado Muñoz Introduction Within the realm of Public Health, it is unlikely to find a concept more subjective than that of Mental Health. The mere mention of it evokes a diverse range of ideas and expectations, which makes definitions or classifications complex. When we extend this issue to the field of Global Health, where the historical, cultural and systemic differences among populations worldwide become apparent, we introduce another layer of complexity. The term Global Mental Health has been employed as a sort of umbrella for various areas of work, such as epidemiological research, academic training, program funding and the development of policies or community action (Rajabzadeh et al., 2021). This holds significant implications for the field of Global Health, where variability in definitions is one of the major challenges when attempting to integrate Mental Health into different types of health projects (Patel et al., 2013). This challenge is pertinent if we acknowledge that there is only one paradigm of Mental Health. However, from a constructivist epistemological perspective, as opposed to the more traditional positivist paradigm, Mental Health can have diverse conceptions in different places, cultures and historical moments (Restrepo & Jaramillo, 2012). In this light, the coexistence of definitions is not inherently problematic for research or social action. The intersection of these two complex and expanding areas of scientific knowledge is intriguing. On the one hand, Mental Health has developed conceptually for over half a century, drawing from different disciplines and schools of thought that have been intertwined in various ways and with different scopes. On the other hand, and more recently, Global Health has experienced exponential growth in the past two decades, including the scenario shaped by the recent Covid-19 pandemic. In this article, we will provide a didactic view of Global Mental Health by presenting some elements of its current state in the world with an emphasis on our Latin American region and outlining the main challenges that we believe it will face in the coming decades. A Conceptual Approach