World Mental Health Day
World Mental Health Day is recognized every year on October 10, The World Health Organization (WHO) joins in celebrating World Mental Health Day with the theme “Mental Health in an Unequal World.” 2020 highlighted inequalities due to race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, and the lack of respect for human rights in many countries, including for people living with mental health conditions. Such inequalities have an impact on people’s mental health.
This theme, chosen for 2021, will highlight that access to mental health services remains unequal, with between 75% to 95% of people with mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries unable to access mental health services at all, and access in high income countries is not much better. We all have a role to play to address these disparities and ensure that people with mental health are fully integrated in all aspects of life. The 2021 World Mental Health Day campaign ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World’ will enable us to focus on the issues that perpetuate mental health inequality locally and globally.