GENEVA, Sept. 2 — Over 1 billion people worldwide, nearly one in seven, are living with mental health disorders, with anxiety and depression posing a heavy burden on human health and economic development, according to two new reports released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday.
The reports, World Mental Health Today and Mental Health Atlas 2024, highlight that mental health conditions are prevalent across all countries and communities, affecting people of all ages and income groups.
Mental health issues have become the second leading cause of long-term disability, driving up medical expenses for families and inflicting enormous economic losses worldwide.
Beyond direct medical costs, indirect costs such as productivity losses are staggering. Depression and anxiety alone cost the global economy an estimated 1 trillion U.S. dollars annually.
According to the reports, although the prevalence of mental health disorders varies by gender, women are disproportionately affected overall.
Anxiety and depression are the most common categories of mental illnesses among both genders. Suicide remains a devastating consequence, claiming more than 720,000 lives every year and ranking as a leading cause of death among young people.
Despite global efforts, progress in reducing suicide mortality remains insufficient to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of reducing suicide rates by one-third by 2030.
At the current pace, only a 12-percent reduction will be achieved by the deadline. To address these challenges, the WHO urges accelerated action through several key strategies.
Specific measures include establishing equitable financing mechanisms, implementing legal and policy reforms to uphold human rights, sustaining investment in the mental health workforce, and expanding community-based and person-centered care.
“Transforming mental health services is one of the most pressing public health challenges,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the report.
“Investing in mental health means investing in people, communities and economies — an investment no country can afford to neglect.
Every government and every leader has a responsibility to act with urgency and to ensure that mental health care is treated not as a privilege, but as a basic right for all,” he added. (Xinhua)
