By Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia

This 12 months’s theme of the World Mental Health Day, Mental Health is a Universal Human Right, requires WHO, Member States and companions to speed up efforts in psychological well being in a human-rights based mostly method.

The focus of human rights has traditionally been on wants resembling meals, shelter, and healthcare. However, psychological well being stands as a important pillar for human well-being. Recognizing that psychological well being is a common human proper is acknowledging the connection between psychological well being and the general high quality of life.

Mental well being, as outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a state of well-being during which a person realizes their skills, can deal with the conventional stresses of life, can work productively and is ready to make a contribution to their group. It will not be merely the absence of psychological issues however a constructive state of psychological and emotional well-being. This definition aligns with the broader conception of human rights as not solely freedoms from hurt however freedoms to guide a satisfying life.

Hence, each particular person, no matter their location, occupation, or identification, is entitled to realize the very best attainable degree of psychological well-being. This encompasses the entitlement to safeguard oneself from psychological well being dangers, entry to psychological well being care that’s available, simply accessed, and of top quality, in addition to the entitlement to freedom and involvement inside their group.

It can also be essential to acknowledge that psychological well being intersects with numerous features of life, together with schooling, employment, housing, and social participation. An individual’s psychological well-being impacts their means to train different rights, resembling the appropriate to schooling and the appropriate to work. When psychological well being is protected, people are higher outfitted to have interaction meaningfully in society.

For psychological well being to be acknowledged as a common human proper, there have to be a metamorphosis of societal attitudes and authorities insurance policies. All obligatory steps ought to be taken to guard populations from the dangers of psychological well being circumstances that embody overarching points resembling local weather change, humanitarian emergencies, social components resembling inequity and poverty. There must be consciousness and schooling to destigmatize psychological well being points. Discrimination and stigma are main limitations that forestall people from searching for assist and assist. Also, psychological well being companies and amenities have to be accessible to all, no matter socioeconomic standing, location, or different circumstances.

Despite psychological well being being important to our total well being and well-being, one in seven individuals are dwelling with psychological well being circumstances in nations of the WHO South-East Asia Region. Mental, neurological and substance use issues and self-harm (MNSS) accounts for 23% of all of the years lived with incapacity (YLD) on this Region. Anxiety and depressive issues had been the most common circumstances amongst each women and men, contributing to virtually 50% of the full variety of individuals dwelling with psychological issues within the WHO South-East Asia Region.

The WHO South-East Asia Regional Office has continued to work with its companions to make sure psychological well being is valued, promoted, and guarded.

Right-oriented companies are a key element of the Paro Declaration by the Health Ministers of Member States on the Seventy-fifth Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia on common entry to people-centred psychological well being care and companies adopted by WHO South-East Asia Member States in September 2022. A human rights method and gender fairness for planning and implementation of psychological well being programmes and repair supply can also be a cross-cutting precept of the newly launched WHO Mental Health Action Plan for the WHO South-East Asia Region, 2023-2030.

To strengthen the growth of community-based psychological well being companies which can be aligned to nationwide and worldwide human rights requirements, WHO SEARO convened a regional workshop on: “Expanding community-based mental health services in the WHO South-East Asia Region: scaling-up care for action”, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 20-22 June 2023.

Several Member States have up to date their psychological well being insurance policies and legal guidelines to incorporate the elements of worldwide human rights devices and different Member States are within the technique of incorporating these elements. There has been vital progress in offering entry to psychological well being companies by way of strengthening  major care and community-based psychological well being companies in a number of nations. WHO will proceed to assist nations to additional strengthen such companies.

In 2023 WHO SEARO printed an interactive dashboard containing Regional and Country epidemiological and burden information was additionally printed in 2023 to higher monitor the psychological well being state of affairs within the Region.

Priority is being given to speed up and strengthen motion to operationalize features of human rights and psychological well being. One method being taken is supporting nations States of their efforts in direction of deinstitutionalization, transferring away from psychiatric hospitals and shifting the first focus of psychological well being therapy and care at group degree. The different method being taken is offering these with lived expertise of psychological well being circumstances, their households and caregivers to a platform to come back collectively and focus on their views with psychological well being and social care programme planners and conform to a method ahead and draft a constitution on their rights.

In conclusion, psychological well being is undeniably a common human proper. Just as the appropriate to bodily well being is a elementary facet of human dignity, the appropriate to psychological well being is equally indispensable.