Abstract
Every year, World Mental Health Day is celebrated on 10 October. The theme for this year, set by the World Federation for Mental Health (2023), was ‘mental health is a universal human right’.
World Mental Health Day aims to encourage individuals and communities to improve their knowledge, raise awareness and drive actions that promote and protect peoples' mental health. It provides an opportunity to reflect on, talk about and look after mental health. The World Health Organization (2023) has made the following declaration about mental health:
‘Mental health is a basic human right for all people. Everyone, whoever and wherever they are, has a right to the highest attainable standard of mental health. This includes the right to be protected from mental health risks, the right to available, accessible, acceptable, and good quality care, and the right to liberty, independence and inclusion in the community.’
Good mental health is an integral part of one's overall health and wellbeing, and everyone has the right to access good quality mental health care. However, there is a mental health crisis occurring on a global scale, with many barriers to access to and delivery of prevention and treatment of mental ill health. As noted in a previous editorial for the British Journal of Cardiac Nursing (Thompson, 2020), mental health disorders, and particularly depression, are a leading causes of disability worldwide. The lifetime prevalence of common mental health disorders has been estimated at 29.2% (Steel et al, 2014).
World Mental Health Day aims to encourage individuals and communities to improve their knowledge, raise awareness and drive actions that promote and protect peoples' mental health. It provides an opportunity to reflect on, talk about and look after mental health. The World Health Organization (2023) has made the following declaration about mental health:
‘Mental health is a basic human right for all people. Everyone, whoever and wherever they are, has a right to the highest attainable standard of mental health. This includes the right to be protected from mental health risks, the right to available, accessible, acceptable, and good quality care, and the right to liberty, independence and inclusion in the community.’
Good mental health is an integral part of one's overall health and wellbeing, and everyone has the right to access good quality mental health care. However, there is a mental health crisis occurring on a global scale, with many barriers to access to and delivery of prevention and treatment of mental ill health. As noted in a previous editorial for the British Journal of Cardiac Nursing (Thompson, 2020), mental health disorders, and particularly depression, are a leading causes of disability worldwide. The lifetime prevalence of common mental health disorders has been estimated at 29.2% (Steel et al, 2014).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | British Journal of Cardiac Nursing |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 02 Oct 2023 |
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- World Mental Health Day 2023: holding mental health as a human right
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