Background: A public mental health indicator scheme may be defined as a systematic collection of brief proxy measures that represent summary information on variables that are potentially influenced by or relevant to mental health systems, programmes and services. Existing public mental health indicator schemes have been developed in or for high-income countries.
Method: The paper describes and compares four existing high-income country public mental health indicator schemes and highlights key observations.
Results: The range of indicators and subclasses of indicators covered by the four existing schemes is large. There was only one item (indicator) that was covered by more than one scheme.
Conclusions: The variety of possibilities in indicators and types of indicators suggests a lack of consensus in the essential contents of an indicator scheme. There is a need for a public mental health indicator scheme that is applicable in resource-poor countries.