Kurt Fritzsche • Susan H. McDaniel • Michael
Wirsching
Editors

2014

An International Primer for the Primary
Care Setting

In 1978, representatives from 134 countries convened inAlmaAta, calling for “health care for all by the year 2000.” (Declaration of Alma-Ata. 1978) This was a turning point for global mental health care, as this declaration emphasized the importance of health care near people’s homes, health promotion and disease prevention services alongside curative medical service delivery, and mental health as an integral component of health. Thirty years later, Barbara Starfield elucidated the evidence to prove that countries with the best morbidity and mortality figures and overall health were linked to health care systems based on a strong foundation of primary care (Starfield et al. 2005).