Mental health for all: a global goal

In 2007, The Lancet published a Series on global mental health that sought to transform the way policy makers thought about global health. The Series papers argued that a growing and worldwide burden of mental disorders was a global health crisis. The authors issued an urgent call for action to scale up services for people living with mental health problems and to close a substantial treatment gap, especially in low-income and middle-income countries, where the proportions of people receiving treatment are lowest. 1 Lancet Global Mental Health GroupScale up services for mental disorders: a call for action. Lancet. 2007; 370: 1241-1252 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (525) Google Scholar A movement for global mental health was born. Prevention, detection, intervention: the big wins for mental healthAround the world, media news bulletins and headlines are dominated by the health scourges of our time: cancer, diabetes, obesity, malaria, and heart disease. Governments rightly focus our international efforts on improving prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, and all are in the sights of clinical experts, scientists, and researchers who, with enough time, resources, and manpower, might just find a cure for them all. Full-Text PDF Towards a new era for mental healthThe new Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development1 raises important issues at a time when many countries in the Global South are re-examining their national priorities in mental health. With its broad vision, the Commission shows why mental health is a public good that is a crucial part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Commission's report emphasises the need to take a dimensional approach to mental health problems and their treatment; to allocate resources where they will be most cost-effective; to consider a life-course approach; and to build on existing research that will pave the way for better understanding of the causes, prevention, and treatment of mental health problems. Full-Text PDF Implementing sustainable global mental health in a fragmenting worldThe Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development1 sets out ambitious recommendations for the transformation of global mental health according to the UN's wide-ranging Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030. The depth of the Commission's report capture the complex, diverse, and sometimes contradictory positions and perspectives of mental health stakeholders, including the ultimate beneficiaries of the proposed reforms—people with lived experience of mental health problems who may use mental health services, along with their carers and communities. Full-Text PDF The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable developmentThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an exponential advance from the Millennium Development Goals, with a substantially broader agenda affecting all nations and requiring coordinated global actions. The specific references to mental health and substance use as targets within the health SDG reflect this transformative vision. In 2007, a series of papers in The Lancet synthesised decades of interdisciplinary research and practice in diverse contexts and called the global community to action to scale up services for people affected by mental disorders (including substance use disorders, self-harm, and dementia), in particular in low-income and middle-income countries in which the attainment of human rights to care and dignity were most seriously compromised. Full-Text PDF