FORUM: "Make Mental Health and Well-being for all a Global Priority." World Mental Health Day 2022.
Stigma and discrimination continue to be a barrier to social inclusion and access to the right care; importantly, we can all play our part in increasing awareness about which preventive mental health interventions work and World Mental Health Day is an opportunity to do that collectively. We envision a world in which mental health is valued, promoted and protected; where everyone has an equal opportunity to enjoy mental health and to exercise their human rights; and where everyone can access the mental health care they need.
STATEMENTS: Statement by the Secretary General WFMH for the Launch of the World Mental Health Day 2022 theme.
EVENTS: For the celebration of the World Mental Health Day 2022., the WHO will work with partners to launch a campaign around the theme of Making Mental Health & Well-Being for All a Global Priority. This will be an opportunity for people with mental health conditions, advocates, governments, employers, employees and other stakeholders to come together to recognize progress in this field and to be vocal about what we need to do to ensure Mental Health & Well-Being becomes a Global Priority for all.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED!
At the United Nations, events and activities are organized each year during the month of October to promote the importance of mental health and well-being for our personnel. For more information about how to get involved please see: Communications toolkit in English.
STORIES:
In 2022, WHO will publish the first ever global guidelines on mental health and work, which will include consideration of how to ensure safe, supportive and decent working conditions that promote and protect mental health. The new guidelines identify three types of strategies.
WHO recommends integrating Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) within all aspects of preparedness and response for all public health emergencies. To minimize the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO also recommends that countries:
The COVID-19 pandemic, like other ongoing crises, has made strengthening mental health systems more urgent all over the world. “The impact of COVID-19 on mental health cannot be underestimated. It cannot be made light of,” says Esenam. Change is possible.
- Knowledge is power: tackling stigma through social contact.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED!
At the United Nations, events and activities are organized each year during the month of October to promote the importance of mental health and well-being for our personnel. For more information about how to get involved please see: Communications toolkit in English.
It's Time to #DoYourShare to support mental health.
STORIES:
- Reshaping work environments to promote and protect mental health.
In 2022, WHO will publish the first ever global guidelines on mental health and work, which will include consideration of how to ensure safe, supportive and decent working conditions that promote and protect mental health. The new guidelines identify three types of strategies.
- Organizational interventions reshape working conditions, for example by providing flexible working arrangements, promoting a healthy work-life balance and reducing stigma in the workplace.
- Mental health training for managers strengthen supervisors’ knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours so that they may better support their workers’ mental health needs.
- Interventions for workers increase individuals’ coping capacities and may include stress management training as well as strategies to promote leisure-based physical activity.
WHO recommends integrating Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) within all aspects of preparedness and response for all public health emergencies. To minimize the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO also recommends that countries:
- Apply a whole of society approach to promote, protect and care for mental health, including through social and financial protection to safeguard people from domestic violence or impoverishment, and by communicating widely about COVID-19 to counter misinformation and promote mental health.
- Ensure widespread availability of mental health and psychosocial support, including by scaling up access to self-help and supporting community initiatives.
- Support recovery from COVID-19 by building mental health services for the future.
The COVID-19 pandemic, like other ongoing crises, has made strengthening mental health systems more urgent all over the world. “The impact of COVID-19 on mental health cannot be underestimated. It cannot be made light of,” says Esenam. Change is possible.
- Autonomy in health decision-making - a key to recovery in mental health care.
Through substitute decision-making, people experiencing mental health conditions lose their rights to informed consent, confidentiality, privacy and communication with family members. Frequently, people end up in institutions and exposed to seclusion or restraint. Being able to make decisions about one’s life – including the right to choose one’s own mental.
Health care – is key to a person’s autonomy and personhood.
The United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) commits countries to recognizing that people with mental health conditions enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with everyone else. And yet involuntary hospital admissions, and care against the wishes of someone experiencing a mental health condition, are routinely and widely practiced across the world. This coercion is facilitated by laws and practices that give guardians of people with mental health conditions extensive substitute decision-making powers.
Through substitute decision-making, people experiencing mental health conditions lose their rights to informed consent, confidentiality, privacy and communication with family members. Frequently, people end up in institutions and exposed to seclusion or restraint. Being able to make decisions about one’s life – including the right to choose one’s own mental.
Health care – is key to a person’s autonomy and personhood.
The United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) commits countries to recognizing that people with mental health conditions enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with everyone else. And yet involuntary hospital admissions, and care against the wishes of someone experiencing a mental health condition, are routinely and widely practiced across the world. This coercion is facilitated by laws and practices that give guardians of people with mental health conditions extensive substitute decision-making powers.
Stigma, which is pervasive in the general population and in the health sector, is a major barrier to improved mental health services and self-care. It is present in homes, schools, workplaces, communities and even within the mental health care system itself. People will often choose to suffer mental distress without relief, rather than risk the discrimination and ostracization that comes with accessing mental health services. Stigma among primary care providers likely contributes to low rates of detection of mental health conditions in primary care.
Anti-stigma strategies can also be targeted at health workers and are an important component of efforts to improve the quality of care for people with mental health conditions. WHO’s QualityRights initiative for example develops and deploys training materials, toolkits, technical support and practical guidance to help combat stigma and discrimination and promote inclusion and recovery.
Anti-stigma strategies can also be targeted at health workers and are an important component of efforts to improve the quality of care for people with mental health conditions. WHO’s QualityRights initiative for example develops and deploys training materials, toolkits, technical support and practical guidance to help combat stigma and discrimination and promote inclusion and recovery.
Mental health is critically important to everyone, everywhere. All over the world, mental health needs are high but responses are insufficient and inadequate. This “2022 World Mental Health Report” is designed to inspire and inform better mental health for all. Drawing on the latest evidence available, showcasing examples of good practice from around the world, and voicing people’s lived experience, it highlights why and where change is most needed and how it can best be achieved. It calls on all stakeholders to work together to deepen the value and commitment given to mental health, reshape the environments that influence mental health, and strengthen the systems that care for mental health.
