In this podcast, we talk to Professor Vikram Patel about the impact of global mental health in the field of medicine, and discuss the initiatives and platforms being developed to promote capacity building, research, policy and advocacy within the established Centre for Global Mental Health. The anticipated challenges, controversies, and future directions for this discipline of global health are highlighted as well.The podcast for this interview is available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/sites/2999/download/Patel.mp3.