A Global Opportunity to Advance Mental Health: Can we grasp it?

Posted on 13/07/2011 | 1 Comments

September 2011 will be an important month for many different reasons. One reason will be especially important for improving mental health across the globe. The United Nations will be holding a special session on Non-Communicable Diseases in New York that month. The purpose of that meeting is to encourage a global response to these diseases, and mental disorders are at the top of the list of diseases causing the greatest burden of illness worldwide. Unfortunately, mental disorders are not at the top of the list of the conveners of this special session. As we are all too familiar, mental disorders are too often not on the list when it comes to health care investment – not only here in Canada but around the world.
 
We know how important mental health is – in wealthy and in poor countries. It is well documented that mental disorders can lead to poverty, decreased educational attainment, job difficulties, incarceration and a poorer quality of life. They increase the risk for substance abuse (including alcohol and tobacco), a variety of physical illnesses and poor adherence to treatment for a number of different illnesses – including HIV-Aids. Mental disorders are very costly, in both direct (for example, hospital beds) and indirect (for example, decreased work productivity) ways. Effective and cost efficient treatments are available and have recently been catalogued and widely distributed to health providers across the globe by the World Health Organization (if you are interested, google mhGAP). What is now needed is to get mental health on the global health agenda.
 
And we need your help to do this.
 
Write your Provincial Minister of Health and the Federal Minister of Health and your local member of Provincial and Federal Parliament. Tell them that you would like them to bring this issue forward at this very important meeting. Ask your friends and neighbors to do the same. Not only may this have an impact at the global level, but it may help in your Province and in Canada as well!
 
--Stan

What people are saying?

Mardi Burton said...

Hope Jack Layton’s recent inspiring words will push more of us to contact our representatives right now.  I guess the reality is that we need periodic reminders from impressive and hard working people.  Thanks for the reminder.

Comment made on August 31st, 2011

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This is a great set of comments and rings very true. 

I totally agree that scientists (just like everyone else) have their biases and foibles.  After all, scientists are human beings too!  But science is different than scientists. 

The scientific method is the most objective frame that we have by which to evaluate and predict.  Science is not about finding truth.  It is only about being less wrong most of the time.  The scientific method (experimental design and mathematics) gives us the ability to test what we believe.  The scientific method is not used to prove something is correct, on the contrary, the scientific method is designed to prove that something is not correct!  It is designed to test what is called the “null hypothesis”.  It takes ideas that come out of left field (or wherever else they come from) and puts those ideas to an independent test.

t does not drive our beliefs.  It does however challenge our beliefs.  In that way it is self-correcting. Of course scientific inquiry and understanding lives within a wider social context.  That is one of the great features of science. 

But gravity is gravity, social context notwithstanding.  And thus it is nasty, brutish and long.  As Brecht said, (something like this) - the purpose of science is to save us from everlasting error.

By Christina Carew on May 11th

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