Concerned about the high number of people worldwide living with mental disorders, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) is establishing the first global forum about community health services that offer an alternative to psychiatric hospitals.
With Europe accounting for nine of the top 10 countries with the highest rates of suicide in the world, health ministers from 52 European countries opened a four-day United Nations-sponsored conference today to address mental health problems on a continent that is poorly equipped to cope.
Serious mental health disorders remain largely untreated around the world, with developing countries faring worst but even relatively affluent countries in North America and Western Europe unable to help up to half of their sufferers, according to the findings of a first in a series of studies by the United Nations health agency.
With only 2 per cent of mental health studies in leading medical journals coming from the developing world, the United Nations health agency today announced a joint project with major journal editors to fill the shortfall through training and mentoring programmes for researchers from poorer nations.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called upon all nations to “rededicate” themselves to protecting children with mental health problems.
Reporting that one in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today issued a major study containing recommendations on how governments should respond to this pervasive problem.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that its annual World Health Report will confront the problem of mental health disorders, culminating a yearlong campaign by the agency to address the issue.
