Mental disorders account for a large proportion of the disease burden in young people in all societies. Most mental disorders begin during youth (12-24 years of age), although they are often first detected later in life. Poor mental health is strongly related to other health and development concerns in young people, notably lower educational achievements, substance abuse, violence, and poor rep...

This paper enumerates and briefly discusses WHO's recent contributions to global mental health and the current challenges and opportunities in this area. It briefly discusses response to diversity across countries and communities, the need for innovations and global exchange of information, evidence and knowledge and raises issues like psychological interventions and human rights related to men...

despite a renewed focus in the field of global health on strengthening health systems, inadequate attention has been directed to a key ingredient of high-performing health systems: management. we aimed to develop the argument that management – defined here as the process of achieving predetermined objectives through human, financial, and technical resources – is a cross-cutting function necessa...

the current limited focus on management in global health activities is highly problematic given the amounts of financial and human resources that are pouring into health system strengthening interventions and the complexity of clinical operations across settings. by ensuring that public health and healthcare practitioners in domestic and international settings receive management training in the...

The United Nations (UN) is negotiating the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the predecessors of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There is now an opportunity to include one of the disease categories with the greatest impact on the global burden of disease (GBD), namely mental illness. This letter presents the case for the inclusion of mental health within the SDGs, drawn f...

Neuropsychiatric disorders and suicide amount to 12.7% of the global burden of disease and related conditions (GBD) according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates for 1999, and recognition of the enormous component of mental illness in the GBD has attracted unprecedented attention in the field of international health. Focusing on low- and middle-income countries with high adult mortalit...

Objectives: More attention is now paid on the importance of emotional and mental well-being of the youth. To better plan for psychiatric health care and rehabilitation in this age group, we need to shed light on the epidemiological picture of their mental disorders. The present study aimed to evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics of the referrals to a child and adolescent psychi...

The discipline of global mental health has been singularly associated with the generation of knowledge which seeks to reduce the treatment gap for mental disorders. Its priority research agenda has focused on delivery science, i.e. the science of implementing evidence-based interventions. Considerable new resources have furthered this agenda, leading to a flowering of innovations to address bar...

What resources are needed? How can progress towards these goals be monitored? What should be the priorities for mental health research? Three questions about the future of global mental health that have arisen from the work of the Global Mental Health Group (WHO 2007) are still pending. This situation we are facing ten years after the initiative was launched brings us to the critical question o...

This special section of Transcultural Psychiatry explores the local-global spaces of engagement being opened up by the Movement for Global Mental Health, with particular emphasis on the need for expanded engagement with local communities. Currently the Movement places its main emphasis on scaling up mental health services and advocating for the rights of the mentally ill, framed within universa...