We are rutted in a deepening mental health crisis that is shortening our lifespans and undercutting the economy. The World Health Organization estimates that incidence of conditions such as depression and anxiety rose by more than 25 percent in the first year of the COVID pandemic, adding to the nearly one billion people who were already living with a mental disorder. Meanwhile, more than 800,000 people worldwide die from suicide annually.
"Everyone's life touches someone with a mental health condition," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said last summer. "The inextricable links between mental health and public health, human rights and socioeconomic development mean that transforming policy and practice in mental health can deliver real, substantive benefits for individuals, communities and countries everywhere."
