Mental health strategies in OECD countries have ranged from a broad-brush establishment of key principles for the mental health system -for example, a need to move towards “deinstitutionalisation” - to strategies that articulate future steps for the mental health system in much greater detail, broadly in line with the outlines set by the WHO. As in many countries, mild-to-moderate mental health problems are too often excluded from mental health care in Norway. Across OECD countries concerted efforts to improve mental health care have been focused predominantly on severe mental illnesses, and have been seen as outside of the remit of specialist services.