Thank you, Excellencies. We have heard from you on the status of mental health in countries of our Region.
We have heard of the central role that primary health care can play in changing that status and ensuring mental health care for all.
We have heard of the critical need for countries to strengthen community empowerment and also expand the specialized and non-specialized mental health workforce.
We have heard of how policy makers can develop and implement multisectoral policies across the life-course, while at the same time address stigma, discrimination and inequities associated with mental health.
Throughout your deliberations, we have heard time and again that there is no health without mental health – a message that I fully endorse, and which is reflected in our Flagship Priority on preventing and controlling noncommunicable diseases.
Having good mental health means we are better able to connect, function, cope and thrive.
It enables a person to better realize his or her own abilities, and to work productively and contribute to his or her community.
In the South-East Asia Region, around 1 in 7 people live with a mental health condition; however, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated mental health risks.
Globally, in the first year of the pandemic, anxiety and depression went up by more than 25%.
This, at a time when many mental health services were disrupted.
And yet across the Region, we find examples of positive change.
Over the course of the COVID-19 response, several countries significantly reduced the mental health treatment gap by better integrating mental health into primary health care, with a focus on training non-specialist health workers to detect, diagnose and treat priority mental health conditions.
Other countries strengthened existing community initiatives, with a focus on increasing social and informal support in non-health settings, while at the same time enhancing formal service provision at the primary level.
And several Member States have stepped up suicide prevention by applying a series of low-cost interventions such as limiting access to highly hazardous pesticides – a globally recognized best practice that in some countries has resulted in a 70% drop in suicide mortality.
Of critical note in your deliberations was the outstanding value of investing in mental health, including for preventive and promotive interventions.
The World Economic Forum has calculated that in 2010 a broadly defined set of mental health conditions cost the world economy approximately US$ 2.5 trillion, which by 2030 is expected to rise to US$ 6 trillion.
At the same time, evidence shows that investing just US$ 1 per capita annually for priority mental health conditions could reduce years lived with disability by close to 5000 per million population each year.
Increased investments and/or allocations therefore will help reach more people as well as increase productivity and employment, and improve quality of life.
In all countries of the Region, three types of political commitment are needed to drive the mental health agenda forward – expressed, institutional and budgetary.
I urge Excellencies and partners to intensify action to address each one, fully mindful that every country, no matter what its current situation, or from where it starts, has an array of opportunities to significantly improve mental health for its population.
In our onward journey, I assure you of WHO’s ongoing technical support, with a focus on reorienting mental health services to strengthen the capacity of primary health care systems, towards universal health coverage, the health-related Sustainable Development Goals, and the objectives of the WHO Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030.
I reiterate our intention to partner with you to build a South-East Asia Regional knowledge and training hub to help generate evidence and share best practices, including for the provision of mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian crises, and in response to the health, social and economic impacts of climate change.
I extend my special thanks to the Hon’ble Minister of Health, Bhutan, for leading this agenda, because together we must promote and protect mental health, and ensure that mental health services reach all those in need, close to where they live, without financial hardship.
Thank you.