Glossary of Global Health Terms

This list, collated by young professionals, includes terms relating to global agreements & processes, mental health terms, global health and governance, determinants and environments, financing & systems, data & monitoring and more!

🟢 Global agreements & processes

  • Alma Ata Declaration
     A 1978 global agreement recognizing primary health care as key to health for all.
    Reaffirmed in the Astana Declaration (2018).

  • Astana Declaration
     Builds on Alma Ata, stressing health care that’s people-centered, inclusive, and supports mental well-being.

  • Pact for the Future
     A 2024 UN push to rethink global cooperation, touching on health, climate, and social justice.

  • UN High-Level Meeting
     Major UN event where world leaders set plans on issues like mental health and NCDs (non-communicable diseases).

  • UNGA Resolutions
     Agreements adopted by the UN General Assembly, e.g., on mental health, climate change, and health equity.

  • A/77/300
     A UNGA resolution focusing on climate and health, including mental health risks linked to climate change.

  • COP28 Declaration on Climate and Health
     Global commitment to consider mental health in climate plans.

  • WHO Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan (2013-2030)
     A global framework to strengthen mental health systems.

  • WHO 2024 resolution on climate and health
     Calls for integrating mental health in climate responses.

🔵 Mental health terms

  • Mental health service delivery
     The way mental health support (counseling, therapy, medication, community care) is given.

  • Promotion, prevention, treatment, recovery
     Steps to support mental health:

    • Promotion: building mental well-being for everyone

    • Prevention: stopping problems early

    • Treatment: providing care when needed

    • Recovery: helping people heal and thrive

  • Primary, secondary, tertiary, community-based care

    • Primary: first-level care (family doctors, local clinics)

    • Secondary: specialists (psychiatrists, psychologists)

    • Tertiary: complex hospital-based care

    • Community-based: support in people’s daily lives and social settings.

  • Co-design
     Working with communities and youth to create mental health solutions, not just for them.

  • Service reform
     Changing mental health services to be more rights-based, person-centered, and community-led.

  • Institutionalization
     Long-term mental health care in large facilities, which can isolate people.

  • Decriminalization of suicide
     Removing laws that punish people for suicide attempts.

  • Comorbidity
     When a mental health condition exists alongside another health issue (like diabetes, asthma).

  • Early intervention
     Acting early to support mental health—before problems get bigger.

  • Psychosocial development
     How people’s emotions, relationships, and social worlds shape their mental health.

  • Holistic strategies
     Approaches that consider mental, physical, emotional, and social health together.

  • Psychosocial needs in the context of climate change
     How climate stressors (like floods, heat) can cause anxiety, depression, trauma.

  • Climate-induced displacement and migration
     When climate events force people to move, impacting mental health.

  • Healthy child-caregiver relationships
     Bonding with caregivers (like parents) is crucial for children’s mental well-being.

  • Early childhood mental health screening
     Checking children’s emotional health early to offer support.

  • Universal and targeted school-based programs

    • Universal: for all students

    • Targeted: for those who need extra help
      They teach coping, resilience, and emotional skills.

  • Whole-of-society approach
     Everyone (governments, schools, businesses, communities) works together for mental health.

  • Biopsychosocial model
     Mental health depends on a mix of biology, psychology, and social factors.

  • Biomedical model
     Views mental health mainly as a medical issue, not always considering social causes.

  • Overmedicalization
     When social/emotional challenges are treated only as medical problems.

🟠 Global Health & Governance

  • World Health Assembly (WHA)
     Decision-making body of the WHO; e.g., 77th WHA discussed social participation in health.

  • Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030
     Plan to strengthen the health workforce—including mental health workers.

  • Global health workforce
     All professionals working in health, including community health workers.

  • Public systems
     Health and social care services funded and run by governments.

  • Multilateral mental health sector
     International agencies (like WHO, UN) working on mental health.

  • Taskforce
     A group formed to focus on a specific mental health issue.

  • National child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) policies
     Plans by governments to support young people’s mental health.

  • MHPSS (Mental Health and Psychosocial Support)
     An umbrella term for helping people’s mental health in crises (conflicts, disasters, climate change).

  • Humanitarian assistance
     Support during emergencies (like floods, earthquakes), including mental health.

🟡 Determinants & Environment

  • Social participation in health and well-being
     When communities have a voice in decisions about health services.

  • Commercial and social determinants of mental health

    • Commercial: how business practices (like junk food ads) harm mental health.

    • Social: how inequality, poverty, discrimination affect mental health.

  • Social, economic, environmental determinants of health
     All the social, financial, and environmental factors shaping mental health.

  • Safe civic spaces
     Places where people can speak freely about mental health and other issues.

  • Access to green space
     Nature spaces (like parks) improve mental health.

  • Why we say climate-related hazard, not natural disaster
     Disasters often result from human decisions (poor planning, inequality), not nature alone.

🟤 Financing & Systems Change

  • Public domestic finance
     Government funding for health, including mental health.

  • Catalytic donor finance
     Donor funding meant to “spark” more local or public investment.

  • Sustainable financing solutions
     Long-term funding models to support mental health.

  • Systemic change
     Deep reforms, not just small fixes, to support mental health.

  • How finance reshapes health systems
     Funding priorities shape how mental health services work.

  • 2024 World Bank & WHO International Financing Dialogue
     Talks on how to fund mental health and NCD care globally.

  • Public global finance gap
     Many countries don’t have enough funding for mental health care.

🔴 Data & Monitoring

  • WHO Mental Health Atlas 2020
     A snapshot of mental health services worldwide.

  • World Health Organization Global Health Observatory
     A hub of health data, including mental health indicators.

  • Routine health information systems
     Systems that track health data (like mental health rates) to guide services.

⚪ Other concepts

  • Job burnout
     Exhaustion from work that affects mental health.

  • Operational research
     Research on how to make mental health services work better.

  • Fair Pricing Forum
     Efforts to make medicines (including for mental health) affordable.

  • Traditional medicinal knowledge
     Community-based, culturally rooted practices that support mental well-being.

  • National Adaptation Plan (NAP)
     Country plans to adapt to climate change—can include mental health actions.

  • Home- and health facility-based antenatal and postnatal care
     Supporting mental health for new parents and babies.

    #whatthehealth

➪ Access the new resource developed by young people and young professionals: “How Organisations Can Meaningfully Engage Young People in Mental Health Policy and Practice”.