This article appears in the August 2016 issue of Cerebrum. In the article, the World Bank Group's Patricio Marquez and WHO's Shekhar Saxena argue that most countries in the world are ill prepared to deal with the often invisible and overlooked health and social burden of mental illness, and discuss some of the complex topics surrounding global mental health care, such as:
- Economic Loss and Return on Investment
- Mental Health Parity in the Global Health Agenda
- Mental Health of Migrants and Refugees
- Technological Solutions
- Mental Health in the Workplace
- Relevance of Neuroscience
- Collaboration and Financing Options
Cerebrum Editor’s Note: At a conference in April in Washington, D.C., the World Bank Group (WBG), together with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners kick-started a call to action to governments, international partners, health professionals, and others to find solutions to a rising global mental health problem. Our authors write that mental disorders account for 30 percent of the non-fatal disease burden worldwide and 10 percent of overall disease burden, including death and disability, and that the global cost—estimated to be approximately $2.5 trillion in 2010—is expected to rise to $6 trillion by 2030.
Illustration by William Hogan
