Together, we need to advocate for resources and a new pathway of care for our COVID-19 positive patients suffering from mental illness so that they do not continue to suffer alone.

Ahead of this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) - the decision making body of the World Health Organisation - members of the Global Mental Health Action Network lay out why mental health for all by 2030 must be a key aim of the Assembly. 

What are the mental health effects of the pandemic for all of us, for the whole population? Research in recent months has painted a picture of more prolonged and more generalised damage to public mental health.

As we seek to recover from the pandemic and prepare to face its long-term impacts, finance ministers have the chance to set the stage for decades of sustainable development ahead.

With the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (Spring Meetings) fast approaching, the secretariat and finance working group members of the Global Mental Health Action Network have been working to ensure mental health takes a leading role on the global stage. 

UHC means that everyone, everywhere should be able to access the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. But today we are faced with a coverage gap of care and services for common mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, of up to 90% in some countries.

Three months ago United for Global Mental Health, with partners The Lancet Psychiatry, Mental Health Innovation Network (MHIN) and MHPSS.net, launched a weekly webinar series to bring together mental health experts and service providers to share the latest information, experiences and lessons from the frontlines of the pandemic around the world. 

The Global Mental Health Action Network (previously known as the ‘BluePrint Group’) held their first virtual Biannual Meeting of their 1000 members from 79 countries with six events over five weeks.

As some countries tentatively now begin to lift lockdown restrictions, whilst the pandemic unravels in those continents who had lagged behind epidemiologically, what has six weeks of insights and reflection by mental health experts and frontline workers revealed, and how can they inform how we build back better?