Does the United Nations care about mental health?

Résumé

The article addresses the concern about whether the United Nations cares about mental health. In 2000, the UN agreed on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to radically reduce global poverty and human suffering by 2015, and in doing so completely omitted any reference to mental health. As the successors to the MDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched by the UN in late 2015. During the development of the SDGs there were few initial indications that the historic neglect of mental health would be corrected. An alliance was established to strengthen the mental health components of the SDGs. The FundaMentalSDG group proposed two specific measures of progress: tracking of suicide rates worldwide; and assessment of how far treatment reaches people with some of the most disabling disorders—namely, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression. To assess suicide on a regular basis for every country in the world requires a new intensity of collaboration to produce accurate and comparable definitions and data. To go on to make a concentrated global push to reduce suicide rates, huge new investment is needed to identify and to implement what makes suicide less likely. The UN has shown that it does care about mental illness. Now it is the turn of our nations to put this commitment into practical effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) SANTÉ-MENTALE