South East Asia is the most heavily populated and among the poorest regions in the world. It faces enormous social, economic, and health challenges, including pervasive inequality, violence, political instability, and limited resources. These countries tend to have a higher burden of diseases and have an already compromised primary health care delivery system. They are also plagued by lack of awareness of the constituting population, stigma associated with mental illness, poverty, and illiteracy.

The multiculturalism of today's cities contributes to increased tolerance, better quality of life, and sociocultural stimulation; at the same time, it often contributes to heightened social tensions, interethnic striving, and cultural conflicts-all of which undoubtedly carry mental health ramifications. The range of disorders and deviancies associated with urbanization is enormous and includes psychoses, depression, sociopathy, substance abuse, alcoholism, crime, delinquency, vandalism, family disintegration, and alienation.