Maternal and perinatal mental health matters. In this #MHForAll webinar, we brought together a panel of experts to discuss the importance of integrating mental health support, specifically perinatal mental health (PMH) care, into existing maternal and child health services.

Maternal and perinatal mental health matters. In this #MHForAll webinar, we brought together a panel of experts to discuss the importance of integrating mental health support, specifically perinatal mental health (PMH) care, into existing maternal and child health services.

For more than six decades the Bernard van Leer Foundation have worked to improve opportunities for young children and the people who care for them. Three years ago, we chose to pay more attention to caregivers’ mental health, recognizing its crucial role in giving babies and toddlers a good start in life. These are some of our insights with examples of how we have endeavoured with our partners to put our growing knowledge of mental health into action for the early years.

This year’s theme for World Mental Health Day was to make Mental Health & Wellbeing for all a Global Priority. Members of GMHAN around the world have raised our voices to demand both attention and action on mental health. Here are examples of what some of GMHAN’s 2200 members have done to celebrate World Mental Health Day 2022.

On World Mental Health Day (WMHD) this year, an unprecedented number of organisations and stakeholders came forth to highlight the need for increased mental health awareness, support, and financing. Across the world, new reports, funding mechanisms, and campaigns were launched to catalyse change at all levels of society.

This year’s World Mental Health Day (WMHD) was observed with the theme “Make mental health and well-being for all a global priority”. This was an opportunity to highlight a pressing matter that is often neglected.

Mental health is a crucial issue for the well-being of an individual, however, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in every 8 people, or 970 million people around the world have mental health disorders.

Our network has always been about our members. People from different backgrounds, disciplines and lived experiences have been the inspiration for building a network that truly answers the complex needs of improving mental health worldwide.

As medical advances continue to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside entrenched and serious challenges, from the cost of living crisis to protracted conflicts to climate change; other priorities can be neglected in the face of such large issues.

That is why, World Mental Health Day on 10th October is such an appropriate opportunity to highlight the importance of mental health as an issue; and why this year’s theme, Making Mental Health & Well-Being for All a Global Priority, is so timely.

The Global Mental Health Action Network (GMHAN) hosted a webinar bringing together the WHO, UNICEF and WMHD founders, The World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) to learn about their plans for WMHD and discuss how others could get involved nationally and globally on this important occasion.

There has been great leaps and strides towards investments in mental health in Kenya in the last four years, and the Coalition Action for Preventative Mental Health Kenya (CAPMHK) has been leading the fight for decriminalization of suicide throughout the country through public awareness campaigns and community-based advocacy on social media, webinars and media.

At the 50th MHForAll webinar, a series of experts discussed suicide prevention and decriminalisation ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day, reflecting on key learnings, and recommendations that can help drive legislation reform at a national level.

COVID-19 has exacerbated mental health needs worldwide at an unprecedented scale, yet global mental health continues to attract limited political attention.