Common Mental Disorders (CMD’s), such as depression, anxiety, and Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD) are highly prevalent worldwide. Global year prevalence rates are about 4.7% for depressive disorders, about 7.3% for anxiety disorders and about 5% for AUDs. These common mental disorders are significantly associated with impairment of quality of life, lower social functioning, and high societal costs. The 12-month prevalence of estimates of major depression, anxiety and AUDs are about the same in high-income as in Low-to-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

In recent decades, empirically supported psychological treatments have been developed for these CMDs with are highly efficacious and efficient. In a meta-analysis, these empirically psychological treatments for depression and anxiety were also effective in LMICs. Global dissemination of these interventions in LMICs is therefore advocated by the WHO. However, in LMICs, the availability of these treatments is limited. Chisholm et al. estimated intervention coverage in LMICs as 14% and 10% for depression and anxiety respectively, corresponding to a treatment gap of 86 to 90% for these disorders. According the World Health Organization, the treatment gap for mental disorders is 30-50% in developed countries and 76-80% in LMICs