 Global Integration UpdatesCommon Ground for the Common Good Be the people we need--Build the world we need
Special News--July 2022
Transforming Mental Health for AllWorld Mental Health Report 2022World Health Organization
Image from the WHO website--credit iStock.com /Vardhan“Our vision is a world where mental health is valued, promoted and protected; where mental health conditions are prevented; where anyone can exercise their human rights and access affordable, quality mental health care; and where everyone can participate fully in society free from stigma and discrimination. To achieve this ambitious transformation, a concerted and renewed effort is needed in all countries, whether they are rich or poor, stable or fragile, affected by emergencies or not....Ultimately, there is no health without mental health.” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Director-General World Health Organization (page vi of the World Mental Health Report 2022) ---------Overview
In this Update we are delighted to feature the new landmark Report from the World Health Organization (WHO)--World Mental Health Report:Transforming Mental Health for All (2022). This is the second such major report in WHO's history with the first one published 20+ years ago as the focus of the World Health Report—Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope (2001).
We cannot overemphasize how helpful, compelling, and understandable this comprehensive Report is! We attended the online launch in June and after further reviewing it, we concluded that it is highly relevant for people and peoples around the globe and that it should be shared widely with colleagues across sectors, countries, disciplines, etc.
“Mental health is critically important to everyone, everywhere. All over the world, mental health needs are high but responses are insufficient and inadequate. This “World Mental Health Report” is designed to inspire and inform better mental health for all. Drawing on the latest evidence available, showcasing examples of good practice from around the world, and voicing people’s lived experience, it highlights why and where change is most needed and how it can best be achieved. It calls on all stakeholders to work together to deepen the value and commitment given to mental health, reshape the environments that influence mental health, and strengthen the systems that care for mental health.” (quote from WHO website)
It's Encouraging--A Light in the Darkness!
Especially encouraging for us is the overall positive tone of the Report (in addition to the stark statistics presented on ongoing global mental ill health and its many underlying environmental-social influences). And we very much appreciate the emphasis on the testimonies of dozens of courageous people with "lived experience" who have struggled to maintain their health and who in many cases have helped to develop supportive community services and improved national mental health services. We can so relate and we think you can too!
Applications--Making the Report Relevant for You
1. Look over the sample items from the Report which we present below (e.g., the Table of Contents, charts, testimony, core quotes, conclusion). Is there a chapter or topic that you especially would you like to probe further?
2. Have a look at a few of the six short testimonies (one page each--taken from the Report) that are located towards the bottom on the Report's webpage. Personal stories of course are so powerful and bring to light challenges and strategies for "transforming mental health for all." Is there a testimony with which you particalrly relate?
3. Read the concise 10-page Executive Summary which is available in these languages: Arabic | Chinese | English | French | Russian | Spanish Can you identify a few items that are especially relevant for your own life and work?
4. Share this Report (and this Update) with your colleagues and networks!
Going Further--see these Global Integration Updates:
--Mental Health and Wellbeing for All (October 2021)
--Wellbeing for Who? Global Reports from Seven Sectors (February 2020)
--Mental Health for All–Me Too! (October 2019)
Warm greetings,
Kelly and Michèle   MCAresources@gmail.com
Featured Resources
Transforming Mental Health for All
World Mental Health Report 2022
World Health Organization
Current Status of Mental Health Globally
“Mental health conditions are very common in all countries of the world. Most societies and most health and social systems neglect mental health and do not provide the care and support people need and deserve. The result is that millions of people around the world suffer in silence, experience human rights violations or are negatively affected in their daily lives.
This should not be the story of mental health, globally or in your country. And it does not have to be. This report argues for a transformation in mental health and shows that it is possible. Using findings from research and practice, it explores diverse options to deepen the value and commitment we give to mental health, to reshape environments that influence mental health, and to develop and strengthen community-based mental health services. Using examples of positive change from across the globe, this report shows that every country, no matter its situation, has many opportunities to significantly improve mental health for its adults and children.”
Dévora Kestel Director Department of Mental Health and Substance Use World Health Organization (page vii of the World Mental Health Report 2022)
 "This report is designed to inspire and inform the indisputable and urgent transformation required to ensure better mental health for all. While promoting a multisectoral approach, this report is especially written for decision-makers in the health sector. This includes ministries of health and other partners in the health sector who are generally tasked with developing mental health policy and delivering mental health systems and services.” (page xiii in the Executive Summary of the World Mental Health Report 2022)
How the Report is Organized--Table of Contents “WHO Member States adopted the Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030. They committed to meet global targets for improved mental health. These were focused on strengthening leadership and governance, community-based care, promotion and prevention, and information systems and research.
But WHO’s latest analysis of country performance against the action plan shows that progress has been slow. For most of the world, the approach to mental health care remains very much business as usual. The result? Mental health conditions continue to exact a heavy toll on people’s lives, while mental health systems and services remain ill-equipped to meet people’s needs. In the meantime, global threats to mental health are ever present. Growing social and economic inequalities, protracted conflicts, violence and public health emergencies threaten progress towards improved well-being. Now, more than ever, business as usual for mental health simply will not do." (page xiii in the Executive Summary of the World Mental Health Report 2022)
Listening to Our Voices--Taking Action
"Throughout this report you will find narratives from people around the world with lived experience of mental health conditions. Their accounts show what effective health and social support looks like, how it can lead to recovery, and how this means different things to different people. And they tell of the suffering, stigma and social exclusion that happens in the absence of environments and services that protect and support mental health and that offer affordable, quality care. Ultimately, these stories are a reminder that investing in and transforming mental health means investing in people. Everyone has a right to mental health. Everyone deserves the chance to thrive."
Dévora Kestel Director Department of Mental Health and Substance Use World Health Organization ( page vii of the World Menta Health Report 2022) 
Mental Health and Sustainable Development
“Mental health is a lot more than the absence of illness: it is an intrinsic part of our individual and collective health and well-being. As this report shows, to achieve the global objectives set out in the WHO Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, we need to transform our attitudes, actions and approaches to promote and protect mental health, and to provide and care for those in need. We can and should do this by transforming the environments that influence our mental health and by developing community-based mental health services capable of achieving universal health coverage for mental health. As part of these efforts, we must intensify our collaborative action to integrate mental health into primary health care. In so doing, we will reduce suffering, preserve people’s dignity and advance the development of our communities and societies.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Director-General World Health Organization(page vi of the World Mental Health Report 2022) 
Pulling It All Together--Conclusions“The report urges all countries to accelerate their implementation of the Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030. It makes several recommendations for action, which are grouped into 3 paths to transformation that focus on shifting attitudes to mental health, addressing risks to mental health and strengthening systems of care for mental health. They are:
•1. Deepen the value and commitment we give to mental health. For example:
•Stepping up investments in mental health, not just by securing appropriate funds and human resources across health and other sectors to meet mental health needs, but also through committed leadership, pursuing evidence-based policies and practice, and establishing robust information and monitoring systems.
•Including people with mental health conditions in all aspects of society and decision-making to overcome stigma and discrimination, reduce disparities and promote social justice.
•2. Reshape environments that influence mental health, including homes, communities, schools, workplaces, health care services, natural environments. For example:
•Intensifying engagement across sectors, including to understand the social and structural determinants of mental health and intervening in ways that reduce risks, build resilience and dismantle barriers that stop people with mental health conditions participating fully in society.
•Implementing concrete actions to improve environments for mental health such as stepping up action against intimate partner violence and abuse and neglect of children and older people; enabling nurturing care for early childhood development, making available livelihood support for people with mental health conditions, introducing social and emotional learning programmes while countering bullying in schools, shifting attitudes and strengthen rights in mental health care, increasing access to green spaces, and banning highly hazardous pesticides that are associated with one fifth of all suicides in the world.
•3. Strengthen mental health care by changing where, how, and by whom mental health care is delivered and received.
•Building community-based networks of interconnected services that move away from custodial care in psychiatric hospitals and cover a spectrum of care and support through a combination of mental health services that are integrated in general health care; community mental health services; and services beyond the health sector.
•Diversifying and scaling up care options for common mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety, which has a 5 to 1 benefit–cost ratio. Such scale up includes adopting a task-sharing approach that expands the evidence-based care to be offered also by general health workers and community providers. It also includes using digital technologies to support guided and unguided self-help and to deliver remote care.”(from the WHO website and nearly identical with the one page Conclusion (chapter 8 summary) on page xx in the Executive Summary)
“World mental health report: transforming mental health for all. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2022. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. Some rights reserved. This work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo).” See the 10-page Executive Summary:
Arabic | Chinese | English | French | Russian | Spanish
Member Care Associates
MCAresources@gmail.com
 Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a non-profit, Christian organization working internationally from Geneva and the USA. MCA's involvement in Global Integration focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of personnel and their organizations across sectors (e.g., mission, humanitarian, peace, health, and development sectors) as well as global mental health and integrity/anti-corruption, all with a view towards collaboratively supporting sustainable development for all people and the planet. Our services include consultation, training, research, resource development, and publications.
Global Integration
Global Integration (GI) is a framework for actively and responsibly engaging in our world--locally to globally. It emphasizes connecting relationally and contributing relevantly on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity, in light of our integrity, commitments, and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, human rights, faith-based). GI encourages a variety of people to be at the “global tables” and in the "global trenches"--and everything in-between--in order to help research, shape, and monitor agendas, policies, and action for all people and the planet. It intentionally links building the world we need with being the people we need.
Our Global Integration Updates are designed to help shape and support the emerging diversity of global integrators who as learners-practitioners are committed to the "common ground for the common good." 2015-current (70 issues). Some examples of foundational ones:
Doomsday?--June 2017
Living in Global Integrity--April 2017
Peace and Security--December 2016
Global Citizenship--June 2016
Faith-Based Partners in Transformation--August 2015
------ Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability;
it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God,
and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 1963) |
|
|
|
