MANILA, PHILIPPINES [TAC] – For the first time, the United Nations has formally placed mental health on equal footing with chronic diseases like cardiovascular conditions and cancer.
The adoption of the new declaration, negotiated over five months and overwhelmingly backed by heads of state and health ministers, was presented and approved at the October UN General Assembly, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
This is a significant policy milestone putting mental health targets at the UN level for the first time despite delays due to the opposition from the US which blocked the adoption in the September UN meet stating that the draft declaration “exceeds the UN’s proper role” and objected to provisions like taxes on unhealthy products.
The declaration on mental health and well-being calls for a global shift in treating mental health not in specialized institutions but in everyday clinics, aiming to reach 150 million more people by 2030.
There is also a pledge to raise mental health spending from an average of two percent of health budgets to at least five percent by 2030.
But while global leaders agree on the principle, clinicians say the main problem remains unchanged – it’s access.
Out of more than a billion people living with mental health conditions today, less than seven percent are estimated to receive effective treatment, and waiting times for services often last for months.
“Outdated health systems have spent decades treating mental health problems as an afterthought, yet they worsen conditions like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease every minute,” said Dr Hannah Nearney, UK medical director at Flow Neuroscience, a company that developed an at-home, brain stimulation based depression treatment.
“Mental illness reduces a person’s ability to take good care of their physical health and affects sleep, immunity, and stress hormones, making the body less able to fight chronic disease. Why it isn’t treated as urgently as physical illness is only a rhetorical question,” Nearney added.
A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders showed that people with depressive symptoms have 57 percent more chronic conditions than others, and those with chronic diseases are 1.5 times more likely to have depression.
“When a patient walks into a doctor’s office, their mental health should be managed with the same urgency as blood pressure or temperature,” said Dr Kultar Singh Garcha, global medical director at Flow Neuroscience. “The main problem isn’t awareness, it’s accessibility. Treatments exist, but too few are scalable or visible to frontline doctors.”
Moreover, long waits and overprescription remain widespread worldwide.
“Imagine waiting months for an appointment, and after ten minutes you leave with another prescription to add to your list,” said Garcha. “Patients managing chronic disease already take multiple drugs, and we need options that don’t add to that burden. We also don’t need those extra side effects that often come with antidepressants.”
Both clinicians agree that it simply puts more burden on primary care providers without actually solving the problem. They urge faster adoption of novel technologies such as brain stimulation.
“The next step, which is already here, is building real access. Recovery in any chronic disease starts with a healthy brain,” Nearney concluded.
