Papua New Guinea is an independent commonwealth in the South Pacific, lying just north of Australia and sharing its western border with Indonesia. The population of Papua New Guinea is 5.2 million, of whom 87% live in rural areas (2000 census) (National Statistics Office, 2003). The country has a very rich culture; for example, there are over 800 distinct language groups (although Papua New Guinea has less than 0.1% of the world's population, it is home to over 10% of the world's languages).

Administratively, Papua New Guinea is divided into four regions, which are further divided into a total of 20 provinces. The capital city is Port Moresby. Travel between the capital city and the provinces is generally by air, since Papua New Guinea's limited road network does not connect all the provinces to one another.

The gross national income is US$580 per capita and the government spends 7% of its total budget on health (UNICEF, 2006). Only 0.7% of the total health budget is spent on mental health (World Health Organization, 2005).

Health indicators

The average national infant mortality rate is 82.2/1000 live births for males and 72.2/1000 for females, while the maternal mortality ratio is a horrific 370/100 000 live births (National Statistics Office, 2003). There are, however, wide provincial variations. Life expectancy at birth is 56 years (UNICEF, 2006). The doctor:population ratio is currently about 1:11 000, but disproportionately more doctors work in the urban areas than in the rural areas. The nurse:population ratio is 1:400.

Mental health resources and services

Public psychiatric services fall under the Social Change and Mental Health section of the Division of Curative Services within the National Department of Health. The resources in terms of facilities and workforce at the different care levels are summarised in Table 1. There are only five psychiatrists practising in the country, giving a national ratio of 1 per 1 000 000, but since all the psychiatrists are in the capital city, the true ratio is 1 psychiatrist for every 70 000 people in the city and zero for the rest of the country. The number of psychiatric nurses per 100 000 population is 0.09 and the number of social workers per 100 000 population is 0.04 (World Health Organization, 2005).