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World Mental Health Day: prioritise social justice, not only access to care

10 October 2021

Dr Rochelle Burgess, Director of the MSc in Global Health and Development and UCL's Global Network on Mental Health and Child Marriage, has co-authored a Comment in The Lancet for World Mental Health Day.

Dr Rochelle Burgess

The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day on 10 October every year. The theme of this year's World Mental Health Day, set by the World Federation for Mental Health, is 'mental health in an unequal world'.

Dr Rochelle Burgess and co-authors share their ideas on the overlapping issues of mental health and inequality in The Lancet Comment, 'World Mental Health Day: prioritise social justice, not only access to care'.

“...under the wrong set of social circumstances, everyone is vulnerable to mental health problems." 

Together they set out five key areas for policy action to promote mental health enabling environments:

  • Safer societies for women, children and people facing gender-based violence and exclusion
  • Reject hostile immigration environments
  • Decent livelihoods and fair wages
  • Safe early childhood experiences
  • Protection from and rejection of racialised and minority exclusion. 

Read more in The Lancet

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