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Health Systems
We are committed to ensuring that mental health becomes an integral part of every health system across the world, with a particular focus on integrating mental health services into primary health care. This is the most efficient and effective way to bridge the treatment gap and ensure essential mental health services are accessible to everyone, everywhere.
Person-centred primary health care to advance access to mental health services
We are dedicated to advocating for high-quality, rights-based, integrated, and person-centred mental health services. This includes ensuring that countries have strong primary health care systems that support common mental health conditions to be managed at primary care and that mental health services are integrated into a range of health programmes, covering noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), communicable diseases (e.g., HIV and TB), and sexual and reproductive health.
Findings from the ‘Bending the Curve report’ highlight the integral relationship and impact of mental health on HIV and TB. Without addressing mental health, there will be no end to HIV and TB. Therefore, there is an urgent need to incorporate mental health services and psychosocial support into the prevention and treatment of HIV and TB. We have developed a technical toolbox with resources supporting the integration of mental health into HIV and TB programmes.
Mental health and NCDs are inherently interconnected. This relationship is complex and bidirectional. People living with mental ill health alongside a non-communicable disease such as cancer, heart disease, or diabetes will die 15 years’ prematurely on average. And yet NCDs and mental health remain chronically underfunded across the world. Our policy brief Increase, Improve, and Integrate: The Way Forward for Financing NCDs and Mental Health highlights opportunities to increase and improve both domestic and global mental health finance to support our advocacy for integrating NCDs and mental health programmes as a smart investment for patients, communities, and the health system.
Mental health as an integral part of Universal Health Coverage
To truly achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC), governments must recognise mental health as a cross-cutting component of UHC. UHC offers a unique chance to integrate mental health services with physical health care. This will provide mental health support within communities, making it more accessible and helping to reduce stigma.
Redistributing resources to shift service delivery towards non-specialised settings
As part of our commitment to deinstitutionalisation, we are advocating for a shift in mental health financing from tertiary institutions to primary and community-based care.
This redistribution of resources aims to make mental health services more accessible to everyone, no matter who or where they are. We want to make sure people can access mental health and psychosocial services at all times, even during emergencies.
Pushing for the mental health workforce the world needs
The world is in urgent need of a well-trained and well-resourced mental health workforce; thus, we are advocating to address the global shortage of mental health professionals, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. We are working alongside national and regional partners to coordinate national and regional efforts to develop a health workforce capable of delivering mental health promotion, prevention, and treatment.
We are encouraging governments worldwide to prioritise investment in the mental health workforce to create positive working conditions for the delivery of appropriate quality mental health care people need. We are calling on governments to champion their mental health workforce—overcoming the challenges of recruiting and retaining the workforce is not possible without an appreciated and empowered mental health workforce. These collective efforts will contribute to narrowing the gap between the demand for mental health services and the available resources and thereby improving the mental health and well-being of individuals and communities worldwide.