World Mental Health Day (WMHD) is
officially celebrated on 10th October every year, and is supported by the UN.
It was first started in 1992 as an annual activity by the World Federation for
Mental Health (WFMH). The first WMHD did not have any theme. For the first three years, one central activity was a
special two-hour global telecast broadcast from studios in Florida that marked
the day. People who participated included
WFMH board members from the studio, with live telephonic participation from Chile, England, Australia, and Zambia along with
pre-taped segments from Geneva, Mexico City, and Atlanta; but all these were
anticipated calls. In one such telecast, WFMH realized that they had a farther
reach than they had anticipated when they got an unscheduled telephone call
from Swaziland, where some WFMH members had gathered to watch the program. They also
received one of their feed-back reports for the first time.
It was in 1994
that a theme was used for the first time! It was “Improving the Quality of Mental Health Services throughout the World”. It received a great response from 27 countries and in this span of 3
years it had gained quite an importance as many government departments and organisations
arranged programs to focus on mental health care in their own countries. Through
all these years, other themes have focused on mental health in relation to women, children, human rights, ageing, work, violence and trauma (in
children and adolescents) , children and teenagers
centered emotional & behavioural disorders, physical health, comorbidity, cultural impact, giving importance as a global priority, citizen advocacy and action, investment and more services, schizophrenia, psychological first aid, and suicide prevention.
This year’s theme is Mental Health for All - Greater Investment, Greater Access. While this theme has been reinforced before as well, this year’s theme places a lot more focus on increasing inclusivity and accessibility. More investment doesn’t mean only in a general sense but also in the sense, that we need to create these services for people who cannot access mental health care through the mainstream ways. There are a lot of barriers, however the most general one is an economic barrier. These also include social barriers for caste, religion, LGBTQIA+ and sex workers or barriers like communication for differently-abled like deaf, dumb and blind people.
The biggest
barrier that we all experience together is that of stigma around mental health
issues and seeking help. So it is important for all of us to deal with this and
create awareness and work towards services for those who cannot access mental
health care because of the presence of these barriers. We also
need greater representation in the field of mental health services so that it
is easier for
people to find therapists with whom they share similar backgrounds.
Everyone deserves access to mental health services and thus these barriers have
to be dealt with by working on creating greater and easier access.
This year’s World Mental Health Day is also very important because during COVID-19, we have seen an enormous rise in suicides, violence, crimes, and a huge increase in mental illnesses and mental health issues due to isolation and the new normal. However, a rise in seeking help has also been observed. More people are now seeking online therapy or free counseling/helpline services. But this also is restricted to only one social demographic group of upper middle class urban young people. It’s also extremely important to remember that World Mental Health Day is not just a one-day event, every day is a Mental Health Day and we all need to try not to see this as a trend but rather as a movement!
Written by- Kashvi Juneja
Comments
Post a Comment