WHO today releases two major reports \u2014 the\u00a0Mental Health Atlas 2024\u00a0and the\u00a0World Mental Health Today\u00a0\u2014 alongside updated suicide estimates, presenting the most comprehensive evidence yet on the urgent need to strengthen mental health services and prevention worldwide.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0World Mental Health Today<\/a> report\u00a0shows that over\u00a0one billion people\u00a0live with a mental health condition, yet most do not receive adequate care. Mental health conditions are among the leading causes of disability globally, and also impose high costs on households, employers and economies. Persistent shortages of financial resources, skilled workers and quality services leave countries unable to meet population needs.<\/p>\n WHO\u2019s new suicide estimates<\/a> reveal that\u00a0727,000 people died by suicide in 2021. Suicide is the\u00a0third leading cause of death among those aged 15\u201329\u00a0\u2014 second for young women and third for young men. More than half of deaths occurred before age 50, with\u00a073% in low- and middle-income countries. These figures highlight the urgent need for stronger prevention strategies.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Mental Health Atlas 2024\u00a0<\/a> is the seventh in a series that began in 2001, and draws on data from 144 countries to assess mental health policies, laws, information systems, financing, workforce and services. It shows little change in investment: mental health accounts for only\u00a02% of health budgets, unchanged since 2017. Spending disparities are wide, ranging from\u00a0US$ 65 per person in high-income countries\u00a0to\u00a0US$ 0.04 in low-income countries. Workforce shortages remain critical, with a global median of just\u00a013 workers per 100,000 people, and extreme shortages in low- and middle-income countries. Reform and development of mental health services is also progressing slowly. Fewer than\u00a010% of countries\u00a0have fully transitioned to community-based care models, with most still in early stages. Inpatient care continues to rely heavily on psychiatric hospitals, with nearly\u00a0half of admissions occurring involuntarily\u00a0and over\u00a020% lasting longer than a year.<\/p>\n Together, these findings highlight both progress, persistent gaps, and the scale of the challenge ahead. They provide governments and partners with essential evidence to inform policy dialogue – including at the upcoming\u00a02025 UN High-Level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health<\/a> in New York \u2013 and point to where investment and action is most clearly needed to achieve the goals and targets of WHO\u2019s comprehensive mental health action plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis report offers a comprehensive basis for discussions on actions to improve mental health around the world.\u00a0It reminds us that mental health is not a peripheral issue but central to improving health and well-being globally and to achieving universal health coverage and other Sustainable Development Goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Citation from Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization, in World Mental Health Today report\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WHO today releases two major reports \u2014 the\u00a0Mental Health Atlas 2024\u00a0and the\u00a0World Mental Health Today\u00a0\u2014 alongside updated suicide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-110726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}