Mental health: The missing piece of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria

For too long mental health has been a missing piece of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. But with the development of the Fund’s new 5-year strategy, we now have a unique opportunity to ensure mental health becomes an integral part of its approach, work and grants.

We know that explicit funding for mental health services at every stage of the HIV and TB service continuum would deliver quality person-centred care and transform the response to the co-epidemics of HIV, TB and mental ill health and the futures of those affected. Our latest research, launched at a side event in collaboration with Frontline AIDS, confirmed the longstanding suspicion –  that integrating basic mental health and psychosocial services into HIV and TB programmes will not only help millions of vulnerable people, but will end these co-epidemics at a faster rate, and in a cost-effective way.

We are now sharing suggested text to fit into the recently released strategic framework from the Fund on how health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) can be fully integrated into the new strategy. Because without addressing mental health, there will be no end to HIV or to TB.