Upcoming panel discussion: Mental Health in an Unequal World

World Mental Health Day is observed on 10 October every year, with the overall objective of raising awareness globally and mobilizing efforts in support of mental health. The theme for World Mental Health Day 2021, which IFRC has also adopted, is ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World’, the reason being the increasing need to highlight that access to mental health services remains unequal across the world, especially in low and middle-income countries, while acknowledging that access in high income countries is not much better.

Indeed, lack of investment in mental health, disproportionate to the overall health budget, contributes to the mental health treatment gap.  Countries spend on average only 2% of their health budgets on mental health. Despite some increases in recent years, international development assistance for mental health has never exceeded 1% of all development assistance for health, even though for every US$ 1 invested in scaled-up treatment for common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, there is a return of US$ 5 in improved health and productivity. Raising awareness on the paramount importance of mental health, provoking reflection and fighting stigma against mental health disorders is therefore urgent.

On 19 October, IFRC will conduct a high-level panel discussion about the inequalities around access to MHPSS services, but also the similar challenges that countries face. The panel discussion will be followed by 5 parallel sessions featuring Movement partners from the different regions.

BE AWARE that you need to register for the high-level panel discussion AND the following break out sessions separately. You can ONLY participate in ONE of the breakout sessions starting at 03:45 PM as they will be occurring in parallel.