A scientific paper by Professor Tengiz Verulava of Caucasus University, titled “Integrating Mental Health into Primary Care: Policy and Practice Challenges,” has been published in the Bulgarian Journal of Psychiatry.

The Bulgarian Journal of Psychiatry is indexed in the international scientific database Scopus. See: https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21101061922

Article link.

Verulava, T. (2026). Integrating mental health into primary care: policy and practice challenges. Bulgarian Journal of Psychiatry, 11(2), 34–39. https://bulgarian-journal-of-psychiatry.bg/en/2026-2-34-2/

Summary

Study: Integrating Mental Health into Primary Care: Policy and Practice Challenges

The paper analyses the process of integrating mental health services into primary care, particularly within the family medicine system. The study focuses on Georgia and offers an insightful comparative analysis with other post-Soviet and European countries, namely Bulgaria, Estonia and Ukraine.

Key findings:

• The impact of the Soviet legacy: In post-Soviet countries, mental healthcare remained isolated from the general healthcare system for decades, which continues to hinder the effective integration of services today.
• Challenges in Georgia: Although Georgia has taken important steps and included mental health in the Universal Healthcare Program, insufficient and fragmented funding, weak inter-agency coordination and the limited preparedness of family doctors to manage mental health issues remain major barriers to the implementation of reform.
• Estonia’s successful model: The study shows that, thanks to digital healthcare and appropriate financial incentives, Estonia has managed to develop a successful model in which family doctors effectively manage early-stage mental health problems.
• Social stigma remains one of the greatest barriers. Patients and their family members often delay seeking psychiatric medical assistance because of fear of social labelling, while doctors sometimes avoid discussing these issues.

Recommendations: Legal reforms alone are not sufficient to bring about real change. It is necessary to shift towards community-based care, integrate the World Health Organization’s specialised training modules for family doctors into medical curricula, increase funding and conduct anti-stigma campaigns.

The full version of the paper is available in the 2026 issue of the Bulgarian Journal of Psychiatry.