Public Services International

PSI welcomes the whole-of-government and whole-of-society orientation to tackling mental health, and the thrust for community-based mental healthcare. It is however, worrisome that countries are still far from meeting the global mental health action plan’s targets.

Strengthening mental health and psychosocial support for populations requires approaches that tackle the determinants of mental health at their social and economic roots.

This would entail curbing excessive hours, job insecurity, violence, and understaffing in the world of work, with the active involvement of trade unions. Collective bodies of marginalised and vulnerable communities also have to be integrated into the whole-of-society approach to ensure the holistic psychosocial support needed to generalise mental wellness.