The term evidence-based to label mental health interventions is increasingly common. Fast developments in mental health and social sciences have prompted policy makers to fund and implement only those interventions that have been evaluated through rigorous experimental studies such as randomized controlled trials (RCTs; e.g. Institute of Medicine, 2009; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). While in the last 50 years significant investments have been made in high-income countries to establish the evidence of many intervention packages, very little has been done in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As a response, there is now a global mental health movement for increasing evaluations and access to evidence-based interventions in LMICs (Collins et al. Reference Collins, Patel, Joestl, March, Insel and Daar2011; Patel, Reference Patel2012).
