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Sabrina Philippe (Psychologist)
Twenty years after an initial inventory, the World Health Organization has published a new report devoted to mental health. Nearly one in eight people live with a mental disorder, a situation that is insufficiently taken care of.
This is an alarming, although hardly surprising, finding that the World Health Organization has just published on June 16, 2022. Nearly one in eight people in the world, or 970 million people, suffer from a mental disorder, at a time when it is nevertheless admitted that “mental health and general well-being is a basic human right”, writes the WHO, in its report on mental health in the world. An even more worrying situation in conflict zones, where it is more like one person in five, while access to care does not seem to follow.
Depression and anxiety aggravated by Covid-19
In question, different individual factors must be taken into account (family, social, cultural, etc.) which can affect everyone. But the pandemic context would have added to the ambient stress.
According to the report, anxiety and depressive disorders increased by more than 25% during the first year of the pandemic. “It is above all anxiety and depressive disorders that are surfacing today, confirms Sabrina Philippe, psychologist. There is of course the covid, but also a whole anxiety-provoking economic and political context that plays on the mental health of populations. And then, let’s not forget the permanent connection to screens, to social networks, which adds to the anxious context.”
According to the report, signs of a rising prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors have also been observed, particularly among adolescent girls and caregivers.
Access to care to be reviewed
Despite the magnitude of the finding, “most societies and health and social systems neglect mental health and do not offer the necessary care and support”, deplores the WHO. Only 2% of national budgets allocated to health care and less than 1% of international aid will be invested in mental health this year. “In the field, the systems put in place are unfortunately not efficient enough or sufficiently accessible to as many people as possible” deplores Sabrina Philippe.
“Mental health is the poor relation of medicine. What to do ? Wait for the majority of people to go bad to allocate more resources to psychiatry? she asks.
For its part, the WHO is continuing its “global action plan for mental health 2013-2030” which pleads, among other things, in favor of a change in attitude and outlook on mental health, the importance of prevention and the development of local care.
Slide: Symptoms of Depression