The Global Mental Health Crisis

 

For many decades, scientists, medical practitioners and governments have been fighting to eradicate diseases such as polio, malaria, HIV/AIDS, ebola, zika, etc. Mental health issues are only beginning to receive similar attention.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently recognized mental health as inseparable from physical health and has identified non-communicable diseases as the next major focus of their advocacy. With The World Bank, WHO co-sponsored Out of the Shadows: Making Mental Health a Global Development Priority, an international conference for ministers of finance and development agencies, in April 2016. Mental health is also included in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. (Source: World Health Organization)

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Mental Health Risk Factors

 

Large populations have been -- and continue to be -- exposed to terrorism, human rights violations, poverty, rapid environmental change, genocide, political upheaval and other conditions associated with mental health disorders.

 

Recent research projects that every $1 invested in treatment of depression and anxiety would yield $4 in labor force participation and productivity. Yet expenditures for mental health services are nowhere near levels needed to address the problem.

 

Sadly, in some parts of the world, the treatment of mental illness is still based on superstition, magic and physical restraint.

 

PAU Engaging Globally

 

The Institute for Global Mental Health at Palo Alto University has been established to provide a single source of information about the many ways in which PAU faculty are contributing solutions to this problem.

 

For many years, members of the PAU community have been active in mental health research, training and intervention to address issues locally and around the world.  Efforts have included:

 

• emergency mental health care planning and training after natural disasters,

• research into the issue of suicide around the globe,

• exploration of risk and resiliency among recent immigrant adolescents in the U.S.,

• training, workshops, counseling and reconciliation programs in countries recovering from genocide.

• Master's degree programs with online coursework and local practicum opportunities

• development and testing of digital apps and internet interventions to expand access to mental health services

 

This work has led to partnerships with communities and organizations working to improve mental health training and accessibility in countries around the world. This work stems from and is applicable to the work that PAU is doing in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.