Global leaders marked World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10 with a Mental Health in an Unequal World theme.
It was meant to call attention to “the disparities in access to health care and how inequalities and inequities due to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, sex characteristics, disability, age, and national origin have an impact on mental health and access to mental health services,” a press release about the event stated.
The U.S. Department of State touts the time as “an opportunity to raise awareness, explore promising practices and lessons learned, and assess the needs to make access to quality mental health and psychosocial support a reality globally.”
Experts estimate that nearly 1 billon individuals around the world currently live with some degree of a mental health condition, adding every 40 seconds a person now dies of suicide.
Although men are more likely to fall victim to suicide, women in the United States are roughly 1.5 times more likely to attempt suicide and also overwhelmingly more likely to experience mental health issues such as depression or anxiety. According to U.S. Department of State officials, around the world 4 out of every 5 individuals affected by conflict, war and displacement are women and children. It is also a world where they experience gender-based violence in their lifetime, situations that can trigger gendered disparities in mental health.
Discrimination and inequality are also known to negatively affect both the mental and physical health of many, while such conditions as anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorders are also known to be more common among young women.
Despite the sobering numbers, up to 95% of individuals with mental health conditions in low and middle income countries often don’t have access to mental health services and lingering COVID-19 conditions have only served to exacerbate existing inequities.
The Biden administration stresses that government now supports equity and equality in treatment, with the State Department promoting access to mental health care around the world.
