According to the latest WHO mental health report, 1 in 8 people suffers from various disorders. Read more…
Highlights
- The latest WHO report on mental health is shocking.
- It is said in the report that 1 in 8 people suffers from various mental disorders.
- This report is known to be the first mental health review of scale in the 21st century.
- This report provides an outline of the state of mental health for all.
The latest report about mental health of WHO shows that 1 in 8 people suffers from mental disorders. This report is significant because this is the first report in a big scale and has the biggest collection of information. It is a 296 page report that has thousands of sources from across the continents. This report includes the governments, academics, health professionals and many interesting parties.
The lack of awareness and access to care is the biggest obstacle to mental healthcare. Before the pandemic, the number of people who have mental disorders was nearly a billion which includes 14% of the world’s adolescents. The number has extremely increased because of the COVID pandemic in the past 2 years.
The already-common conditions like depression and anxiety went up by more than 25% in the first year of pandemic. The WHO report showed that countries spent less than 2% of their healthcare budgets on mental health care. As a result, just a small number of people who are in need of mental care get access to effective, affordable and quality mental healthcare.
WHO Report
Globally, there maybe 20 suicide attempts to every one death, yet suicide for more than one in every 100 deaths. Suicide is one of the major cause of death among young people. There is almost 1 in 200 adults who suffer from Schizophrenia. It is the most impairing of all health conditions in its acute states.
Mark Van Ommeren of the WHO’s mental health unit said in a news conference that suffering is enormous. All these numbers are very, very low. He further said that interest in mental health right now is at an all time high due to the pandemic.
The WHO report urges and advocates mental health decision makers to step up commitment and action to change attitudes, actions and approaches to mental healthcare and its determinants. They also call to end stigmata, prejudice and human right violations against people with mental health conditions with 20 countries still forbidding attempted suicide.
In the WHO’s report mental health conditions also have serious consequences with economic productivity losses outstripping the direct cost of care. It also recommends action for stepping up investment in mental health, building resilience, reducing risk and dismantling obstacles that stop people with mental conditions from socially participating and diverging and scaling up care options for mental conditions.
