Owing to the growing incidence of mental health issues with around 25 million Pakistanis suffering from depression, anxiety and other psychological disorders, along with availability of a few psychiatrists, Alkhidmat Pakistan has launched an initiative called ‘Brain on Wheels’ to expand access to mental health care in far-flung areas of the country, officials said on October 5.
They said Pakistan had fewer than 500 trained psychiatrists, which meant that less than one psychiatrist was available for every 500,000 people. Most of these professionals were based in major cities, leaving millions in rural and peri-urban areas untreated for years due to poverty, stigma and lack of services.
Citing the World Health Organization (WHO), they said it was estimated that one in four Pakistanis would face a mental health issue during their lifetime, yet public spending on mental health remained below one per cent of the total health budget.
“Mental illness is everywhere from flood-affected villages to corporate offices but our healthcare system still treats it as a luxury,” said Dr Tabassum Jafri, president of the Alkhidmat Foundation Sindh, at the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at enhancing mental health services in remote areas of the country.
“Young people are breaking down under pressure, women are suffering silently from depression, and men are turning to drugs to cope. But there is no structured national response,” she added.
Recognising this growing crisis, Dr Jafri said, the Alkhidmat Foundation Pakistan, long known for its humanitarian work in health, disaster relief and orphan care, had decided to broaden its focus to include mental health. The decision stemmed from the growing evidence of widespread psychological distress among communities recovering from floods, displacement or poverty.
“Mental pain can be just as crippling as physical illness,” she said. “We have realised that emotional trauma is common, and people recovering from crises need psychological help as much as food, water or medicine. That is why we are now integrating mental health into our welfare programmes.”
Under the initiative, mobile mental health teams would visit peripheral towns and rural communities to offer free consultations, counselling and essential medicines. The Brain on Wheels programme would also organise awareness sessions to reduce stigma, conduct on-site screenings for depression and anxiety, and train local volunteers in basic psychological first aid.
To support this outreach, the MoU was signed between Dr Jafri and Kamran Ali Zaman, deputy director marketing at PharmEvo, which would strengthen the initiative through technical support, provision of medicines and coordination with mental health professionals.
Company officials said the collaboration was a result of PharmEvo’s broader focus on community health and well-being. “Mental health is one of the most neglected aspects of health care in Pakistan,” a company spokesperson said. “Through Brain on Wheels, we hope to make people realise that seeking help is not weakness, it is the first step toward healing.”
Citing the WHO data, he said mental disorders accounted for nearly 14 percent of Pakistan’s total disease burden, while untreated depression and anxiety contributed to chronic illnesses, domestic violence, substance abuse and suicide.
The economic toll of mental illnesses, experts say, runs into billions of rupees annually due to lost productivity. Alkhidmat officials said they believed welfare organisations had a vital role to play where formal healthcare systems had failed. “Faith-based and community organisations can reach people the state cannot,” an official noted. “If we can combine awareness with access to treatment, we can begin to heal communities that have long suffered in silence.”
The Brain on Wheels programme will begin in selected districts of Sindh, focusing on low-income and disaster-affected areas, before expanding to other provinces. For millions battling invisible pain, the initiative represents a long-overdue recognition that mental health is not a private struggle but a national concern, and that care, compassion and counselling belong as much in relief camps as in hospitals.
Published in The NEWS on October 6, 2025.
