"It (mental health) needs a dual approach -- we have to reach out to the people and at the same time should have tertiary support," WHO South-East Asia regional adviser on mental health and substance abuse Dr Vijay Chandra said on Saturday. "Bangladesh has tertiary support in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and National Institute of Mental Health. Now it needs to reach to the people. "Community clinics can play a role in this regard," he told bdnews24.com after a three-day regional meeting of 11 countries wound up in the capital on Saturday. According to Bangladesh Association of Psychiatrists, there is vast gap between the number of patients and mental health services in the country. Available data suggest at least three in 10 Bangladeshis suffer from some form of mental illness. A pilot project in Dhaka's Sonargoan upazila showed the gap is 92 percent when it comes to experts required for treatment only of children's epilepsy -- a brain condition that leads sudden unconsciousness and sometimes to have fits. "The picture is almost the same for rest of the country," National Institute of Mental Health director Prof M Golam Rabbani, said. "There are only 190 psychiatrists for over 150 million people, so healthcare providers at community settings can help narrow down this gap."