Mental health and development: targeting people with mental health conditions as a vulnerable group

This report, published by the World Health Organization, on mental health and development is a call to action to all development stakeholders - governments, civil society, multilateral agencies, bilateral agencies, global partnerships, private foundations, academic and research institutions - to focus their attention on mental health.

Key messages of this report are:

• people with mental health conditions meet criteria for vulnerability.
• because they are vulnerable, people with mental health conditions merit targeting by development strategies and plans.
  
• different development stakeholders have important roles to play in designing and implementing policies and programmes for reaching people with mental health conditions, and in mainstreaming mental health interventions into sectoral and broader national development strategies and plans.
• development programmes and their associated policies should protect the human rights of people with mental health conditions and build their capacity to participate in public affairs. 
• the recommended actions in this report provide a starting point to achieve these aims

The report presents compelling evidence that persons with mental and psychosocial disabilities are a vulnerable group but continue to be marginalised in terms of development aid and government attention.

The authors, through the compelling evidence presented, make a case for reaching out to persons with mental and psychosocial disabilities through the design and implementation of appropriate policies and programmes and through the inclusion of mental health interventions into broader poverty reduction and development strategies. The report also describes a number of key interventions which can provide a starting point for these efforts.

Finally, the authors conclude that by investing in persons with mental and psychosocial disabilities, development outcomes can be improved.