The Realities of the Global Health Issue

*Image Source: Pixabay

The problem of global mental health worldwide is ever increasing. Mental health problems continue to be unaddressed and undiagnosed. According to Global Mental Health, depression attacks 120 million people worldwide, epilepsy encompasses 50 million individuals, Alzheimer’s disease is evident in 37 million, and schizophrenia victimizes 24 million persons. There are approximately 1 million attempts of global suicide annually with 20 million attempts being unsuccessful. The eight leading cause of death in the United States is suicide with one life being taken away every 17 minutes.

Mental health problems is a prime reason of loss in the number of years of quality of life. Despite this World Bank study, the budget allocated to treat mental health problems in national government budgets are relatively small compared to other diseases.

Global Health in Africa

A group of individuals who have mental health as their common interest met at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in South Africa on February 24-25, 2014. Their topic was about Mental Health Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa: Moving to Implementation.

These individuals come from various sectors such as policymakers, NGOs, service providers, and educators. These people recognized that there is “no health without mental health.” They also believed that large-scale poverty results in higher vulnerability to mental illness and that the African continent must pay attention to mental health.

Some salient features of their policy involve the necessity of governments to legislate laws that will stop the violation of human rights. Furthermore, this group also declared the urgency for governments to take the lead in encouraging a national dialogue on mental health. The government should work with various sectors in order to deal effectively with mental conditions and in addressing the social circumstances that create the associated disability.

Global Health in Asia

According to the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, Asian countries do not set at the top priority their mental health and mental health care. Even with the global emphasis on this, there must be a great change in the training of health professionals in basic primary care mental health before a transition in this field of interest. If medical schools will not change the way they teach psychiatry, then there will dormancy in mental health care. There must a change in the way the community perceives mental health. There must be community-based care. Furthermore, there must be a boost in public education and NGO involvement in mental health.

Global health is an issue that needs cooperation from all sectors of society. Asia and Africa are only two of the continents that require paying attention to health concerns.