“There is no health without mental health.” This reminder from the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, introduces the latest global report from the UN health agency, published on Friday, June 17. This document warns of the extent of mental disorders in the world’s population and calls for more investment in mental health. “The suffering is enormous”, insisted Mark Van Ommeren of the WHO mental health unit during the presentation of this report on Friday. Franceinfo returns to four points that can be retained.
1Nearly one in eight human beings are affected
The WHO makes a broad observation: “Mental health problems are widespread in all countries of the world.” In 2019, 970 million people suffered from a mental disorder. This represents 13% of the world’s population, or nearly one in eight people. In areas that have experienced conflict in the last ten years, one in five people is affected.
Anxiety and depressive disorders “are the most widespread”, affecting, respectively, 31% and 28.9% of the total people affected by mental health problems. Bipolarity (4.1% of the total) and schizophrenia (2.5%) are rarer. Among those affected by mental disorders, the WHO counts a small majority of women (52.4%).
Men and women with severe mental disorders have a life expectancy ten to twenty years shorter than that of the general population, says the WHO. Who also recalls that suicide “represents more than one death in a hundred”, and that it is “one of the leading causes of death among young people”.
2The Covid-19 pandemic has worsened the situation
While mental disorders were widespread around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated these problems. According to the WHO, the frequency of anxiety or depressive disorders has increased by more than 25% during the first year of the pandemic. Early signs of an increasing prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors have been observed, particularly among adolescent girls and caregivers.
“Mental health services have been severely disrupted and the mental health treatment gap has worsened.”
WHOin its mental health report
Among the aggravating factors resulting from the pandemic, the organization mentions the stress linked to the health crisis itself, to restrictive measures or even to the loss of a job and financial insecurity. The economic and social consequences of the spread of Covid-19 have particularly affected women and young people.
3Millions of people “suffer in silence” for lack of access to care
For the WHO, despite the magnitude of this problem, “most societies and health and social systems neglect mental health and do not provide the necessary care and support“. “Millions of people around the world suffer in silence”she warns.
For example, only 29% of people with psychosis are treated for this disorder. The gap is clear according to the economic level of the countries: they are 70% in developed countries, and only 12% in low-income countries. Generally, “populations with high rates of socio-economic deprivation are those with the lowest access to care”, reminds the WHO.
In terms of depressive disorders, insufficient care is generalized, whatever the level of development of the country: in the developed States, only one third of people suffering from severe depression receive mental health care. “The majority of people (…) are simply not treated”, supports the health agency.
“On average, less than 2% of national healthcare budgets go to mental health.”
WHOin its mental health report
The WHO states that nearly 50% of the world’s population lives in countries “where there is barely one psychiatrist for 200,000 people, or even more”. The supply of medicines remains “limited”. And to this is added the weight of stigma and discrimination, which also hinders access to care.
4 WHO calls for investment in prevention
The agency devotes a large part of its report to proposing solutions to fill “the immense deficit of care”. “Commitments must be translated into action, with appropriate funding”, plead first of all the authors of the report. States must “expand their workforce of mental health specialists”and reinforce in parallel “the psychiatric skills of other professionals and caregivers”. WHO calls for “include mental health in universal health coverage programmes”.
At the same time, the WHO insists on the importance of prevention, and lists priorities: suicide prevention, actions aimed at children and adolescents, initiatives in the workplace, or even the fight against the stigmatization of mental disorders.
One of the ways indicated by the organization is the development of local care. “The management of severe mental disorders in psychiatric hospitals must be abandoned in favor of community mental health services”, defends the WHO.