This chapter summarizes the principles of mental health services organization. It describes the different types of mental health services, and discusses the main issues related to the development of integrated mental health systems. Mental health services are the means by which effective interventions for mental health are delivered, and are vital in reducing some of the burden of mental disorders. In the module Organization of services for mental health, the World Health Organization (WHO) broadly describes the way mental health services are organized around the world. The various components of mental health services are categorized as mental health services integrated into the general health system (in primary care and in general hospitals), community mental health services, and institutional mental health services (specialist institutional services and mental hospitals). The integration of mental health services into general health services is the most viable strategy for extending mental health services to underserved populations.

This chapter overviews the current literature on substance use after disasters in affected populations. Several studies examined different aspects of substance use, such as prevalence, comorbidity, correlates and/or predictors of alcohol, tobacco and drugs use. The chapter outlines the prevalence of substance dependency-abuse, changes in substance use, and associations between substance use and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other mental health problems after different categories of disasters. It describes the associations between substance use and mental health disturbances after several types of disasters. The chapter presents correlates of substance use or misuse in detail, that is, (independent) predictors of substance use, as well as substance use as a (independent) predictor for PTSD and other postdisaster mental health disturbances. It focuses on residents affected by natural and technological disasters as well as disasters caused by mass violence and terrorism.