A Transformative Moment for Global Mental Health Advocacy
GMHAN at the Multistakeholder Hearing on noncommunicable diseases (NCD) and mental health and wellbeing
2025 is a historic year for mental health advocacy. For many years to come, we will look back on it and reflect on the political declaration made by United Nations (UN) Member States this coming September at the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting (HLM) - the first ever HLM at the United Nations with a central focus on mental health!
For over 12 months, the Global Mental Health Action Network has been convening voices from across the mental health field, bringing together grassroots advocates, academics, researchers, youth, people with lived experience, UN agencies and international non-governmental organisations. Through a series of meetings, discussions and consultations, we shaped our HLM briefing, identifying key priorities for achieving equitable, integrated, and rights-based mental health services and prevention worldwide.
In the HLM political declaration this year, we hope to see:
1. Recognition that our health – mental and physical – is profoundly shaped by the circumstances in which we are born, grow up, work, live and age
2. Greater regulations for harmful industries that have been cynically harming our wellbeing for decades.
3. Immediate action to decriminalise and prevent suicides, with increased attention on young people.
4. Commitment to shape our healthcare systems to provide care in the community, in primary care and in the settings in which we play, study and work.
5. Formalised social participation frameworks and processes for people with lived experience and young people in every policy conversation and decision.
This landmark occasion presents a unique opportunity to connect local voices to global influence, and global commitments to local action. We know that no one is better placed to speak to these issues than the people closest to them, and as a community, we have been calling for more inclusive practices and meaningful participation of those most directly affected.
What unfolded over the past week in New York demonstrates just how far we have come in decentralising power, sharing decision-making and ensuring diverse representation from our community in global mental health policy discussions. While there is still work to be done to formalise these processes, this is a step in the right direction and an example of how we can create and share platforms at the highest level.
“We need to move from tokenism to co-leadership, and value lived experience as expertise, as those closest to the problem are closest to the solution.”
The Global Mental Health Action Network mobilised a delegation of 40 advocates from 30 countries. Over just 5 days, we hosted an advocacy workshop, organised 23 meetings with UN missions covering 5 continents, participated in 7 side events, and carried one unified message: mental health must be prioritised at the upcoming HLM.
Advocacy Workshop
Before a busy week of meetings, our 40 global advocates gathered for the first time in one room to prepare and strategise. We hosted an advocacy workshop, designed to enhance our collective capacity to engage with ambassadors and the permanent missions to the UN, align around our shared priorities ahead of the multistakeholder hearing at the UN Headquarters and share country-level insights. We were joined by partners from WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, the Global Psychology Alliance, the World Federation of Public Health Associations, the Wellcome Trust, and our hosts, the Child Mind Institute, who presented our newly published joint research in The Lancet Global Health on “Data Gaps in Prevalence Rates of Mental Health Conditions Around the World” - a timely contribution to our shared push for better data and accountability.
We are incredibly grateful to Child Mind Institute for hosting us for this invaluable day of knowledge exchange and learning. Throughout the day, we built stronger bonds and familiarised ourselves with the policy environment. By the end, we shared a collective sense of readiness and excitement to face the upcoming week as a unified group, representing diverse perspectives, united by our joint commitment to accelerating global progress on mental health.
UN Mission Meetings
What followed was a whirlwind of conversations, connections and coffee-fuelled advocacy. Meetings with UN mission representatives were scheduled, then cancelled and rearranged, and moved multiple times. We remained ever-ready to catch a subway to a cafe across town for a quick chat with an ambassador to highlight our community’s key priorities and offer our support in any way possible.
Despite the challenging context of global health today, our key messages were, to our surprise, incredibly well received by all missions, with many ambassadors keen to maintain contact with advocates in the HLM process. Interestingly, some missions shared that they had not met with any other mental health stakeholders as part of this HLM process. Our presence in New York and at these meetings was not only timely but vital. In a world that sometimes seems to be moving backwards on health and rights, each meeting felt like a victory and a powerful indicator of the global demand for meaningful action on mental health.
The Multistakeholder Hearing
The phrase “historic moment” was used a lot during our time in New York, and rightly so! Friday, 2nd May was the first time mental health was being discussed at the UN Headquarters with this much urgency, and with such a strong presence from civil society. Truthfully, we had been mentally preparing to hear only a handful of statements on mental health. We’d even come to terms with the possibility that we might not get called to speak at all. But what happened left us all stunned. One after another, representatives from our global mental health community, from all corners of the room, were cued up to take the mic. Our heads turned, eyes darted, fists clenched in celebration - we were in the room, and we were being heard. It was a giddying experience, with a total of 14 interventions coming from our mighty delegation.
Mental health was in the spotlight at the highest level of global health conversation. Those shaping the political declaration were being directly confronted with the dire, and too often overlooked, state of mental health around the world, and at the same time, were being presented with clear, actionable solutions for transformative and sustainable change.
Our collective voice rang through the conference room: now is the time to make bold commitments in mental health that are inclusive, well-funded, grounded in human rights and shaped by the people closest to the problem! Member states must take action on our key priorities now to improve mental health for all.
As the GMHAN Secretariat, we’d like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all GMHAN members who took the time out of their busy schedules, away from family and friends, to be with us in NYC and share their voice, their personal stories of lived experience and advocacy expertise with us all.
We owe much of the success of this trip to our close partners at the American Psychological Association, the Child Mind Institute, and the World Federation for Public Health Association, who strengthened and further amplified our collective voice at this critical moment ahead of the HLM in September.
