Mental Health and Substance Use

There is no health without mental health. Mental health is essential to the well-being of individuals, families, and communities. Good mental health empowers people to realize their full potential, promotes resiliency in the face of life's adversities, supports productivity, and helps maintain social cohesion through meaningful connections. Unfortunately, in the Western Pacific Region, mental and substance use disorders, suicide, and neurological disorders such as dementia affect over 200 million people. Stigma against people living with mental disorders remains persistent and pervasive leaving them vulnerable to abuse while denying access to much needed support and services.

For the Future: Towards the Healthiest and Safest Region is a strategic document that articulates WHO's vision of public health and its priorities in the Western Pacific. It highlights mental health and dementia, alongside noncommunicable disease and aging, and health inequity, as significant public health concerns that call for a system approach to scaling-up services and community engagement. Guided by these principles, a new Regional Framework for the Future of Mental Health in the Western Pacific is forthcoming. The new regional framework is envisioned to support Member States in developing national plans and policies, strengthen political advocacy for greater resources and commitment, and encourage collaboration across all stakeholders through new ways of working. Mental health is everyone's business. Realizing this vision calls for a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to ensuring mental health for all