World Mental Health Day, October 10th, 2020 “Move for Mental Health let’s invest”.
Life and it’s challenges starts to change as you grow. There are new pressures both environmental and social, study pressures increase, work pressures change how you view life and for some people it can become all a little bit overwhelming. At the Sir Brian Bell Foundation, we are focused on helping to improve life through the programs we start and support covering Health and Education.
“Life is constantly changing for both positive and sometimes negative reasons. We all deal with life in different ways, we all have different coping mechanisms and we all have different support networks,” commented Sir Brian Bell Foundation CEO, Ms. Bronwyn Wright. “Mental Health plays a significant part of our lives whether we know it or not. Mental health is all about how you are feeling internally. At some point in our lives we have put on a brave face and head out into life, even when the day is looking bleak. However, there are some people that each and every day is a challenge. Life just doesn’t seem to get better.”
“We need to all take a step back and look out for our friends and family. We need to pay a little bit closer attention and check in for time to time. Mental Health is all about recognising the little changes in people and acknowledging they might need a simple conversation and listen to what is going on in their life.” “This simple gesture and recognition can change a person’s outlook for the day, or the next month. Just to know there is someone caring and looking out for them. Just listening can change their mental health position instantly.” “On October 10th this year, be part of World Mental Health Day - Move for mental health: let’s invest. Be invested in your personal network, check-in with them and offer the simple question, how are you doing? It might just be the thing to change their negative outlook for the day into the positive light they need,” commented Sir Brian Bell Foundation CEO, Ms. Bronwyn Wright.
World Health Organization:
This year’s World Mental Health Day, on 10 October, comes at a time when our daily lives have changed considerably as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The past months have brought many challenges: for health-care workers, providing care in difficult circumstances, going to work fearful of bringing COVID-19 home with them; for students, adapting to taking classes from home, with little contact with teachers and friends, and anxious about their futures; for workers whose livelihoods are threatened; for the vast number of people caught in poverty or in fragile humanitarian settings with extremely limited protection from COVID-19; and for people with mental health conditions, many experiencing even greater social isolation than before. And this is to say nothing of managing the grief of losing a loved one, sometimes without being able to say goodbye. The economic consequences of the pandemic are already being felt, as companies let staff go in an effort to save their businesses, or indeed shut down completely. Given past experience of emergencies, it is expected that the need for mental health and psychosocial support will substantially increase in the coming months and years. Investment in mental health programmes at the national and international levels, which have already suffered from years of chronic underfunding, is now more important than it has ever been. This is why the goal of this year’s World Mental Health Day campaign is increased investment in mental health.
Close to 1 billion people are living with a mental disorder, 3 million people die every year from the harmful use of alcohol and one person dies every 40 seconds by suicide. And now, billions of people around the world have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is having a further impact on people’s mental health. Yet, relatively few people around the world have access to quality mental health services. In low- and middle-income countries, more than 75% of people with mental, neurological and substance use disorders receive no treatment for their condition at all. Furthermore, stigma, discrimination, punitive legislation and human rights abuses are still widespread. The limited access to quality, affordable mental health care in the world before the pandemic, and particularly in humanitarian emergencies and conflict settings, has been further diminished due to COVID-19 as the pandemic has disrupted health services around the world. Primary causes have been infection and the risk of infection in long-stay facilities such as care homes and psychiatric institutions; barriers to meeting people face-to-face; mental health staff being infected with the virus; and the closing of mental health facilities to convert them into care facilities for people with COVID-19.
“World Mental Health Day is an opportunity for the world to come together and begin redressing the historic neglect of mental health,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. “We are already seeing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s mental well-being, and this is just the beginning. Unless we make serious commitments to scale up investment in mental health right now, the health, social and economic consequences will be far-reaching.”
“It is nearly 30 years since the first World Mental Health Day was launched by the World Federation for Mental Health,” said Dr Ingrid Daniels, President of the World Federation for Mental Health. “During that time, we have seen an increasing openness to talk about mental health in many countries of the world. But now we must turn words into actions. We need to see concerted efforts being made to build mental health systems that are appropriate and relevant for today’s – and tomorrow’s - world.
“With so many people lacking access to good quality, appropriate mental health services, investment is needed now more than ever,” said Elisha London, Founder and CEO of United for Global Mental Health. “Everyone, everywhere can participate in this year’s campaign. Whether you have struggled with your own mental health, know someone who has been affected, are a mental health expert, or if you simply believe that investing in mental health is the right thing to do, move for mental health, and help make mental health care and support accessible for everyone.”
Key messages
- Close to one billion people have a mental disorder and anyone, anywhere, can be affected.
- Depression is one of the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents and adults.
- 1 in 5 children and adolescents has a mental disorder.
- People with severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia tend to die 10-20 years earlier than the general population.
- Suicide is claiming the lives of close to 800 000 people every year ̶ 1 person every 40 seconds ̶- and is the second leading cause of death for young people aged 15-29 years.
- Despite the universal nature and the magnitude of mental ill health, the gap between demand for mental health services and supply remains substantial.
- Relatively few people around the world have access to quality mental health services.
- In low- and middle-income countries, more than 75% of people with mental health conditions receive no treatment for their condition at all.
- The serious gaps that still exist in mental health care are a result of chronic under-investment over many decades in mental health promotion, prevention and care.
- Stigma, discrimination and human rights abuses of people with mental health conditions remain widespread.
- The lost productivity resulting from depression and anxiety, two of the most common mental disorders, costs the global economy US$ 1 trillion each year.
- On average, countries spend less than 2% of their national health budgets on mental health.
- Despite an increase of development assistance for mental health in recent years, it has never exceeded 1% of development assistance for health.
For more information head to:
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day/world-mental-health-day-2020/world-mental-health-day-campaign
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