Below are the opening lines of a press release from WHO and two comments from me.
Read online: https://www.who.int/news/item/02-09-2025-over-a-billion-people-living-wi...
2 September 2025 News release Geneva
اMore than 1 billion people are living with mental health disorders, according to new data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), with conditions such as anxiety and depression inflicting immense human and economic tolls. While many countries have bolstered their mental health policies and programmes, greater investment and action are needed globally to scale up services to protect and promote people’s mental health...
The new findings published in two reports – World mental health today and Mental Health Atlas 2024 – highlight some areas of progress while exposing significant gaps in addressing mental health conditions worldwide.
The rport is available here: https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/382452/9789240114487-eng.pdf
COMMENT (NPW): I have not been able to read the report in depth, but it does not appear to explore the potential of digital services, especially artificial intelligence. A recent UK Government report notes: 'Research suggests that purpose-built AI solutions can be effective in reducing specific symptoms of some mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression, tracking relapse risks (such as for psychosis), and inciting preventative behaviour changes.' https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0737
Also, I couldn't find any references to community health workers and task shifting. As HIFA member Vikram Patel wrote in The Lancet (2022): 'The global impact of the implementation science that shows the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of task-sharing of psychosocial interventions in low-resource settings is evidenced by the growing demand for this delivery model in high-income countries. A key challenge in all countries is how to train the large number of providers needed and assure the quality of their delivery of psychosocial interventions. Digital tools for the training and supervision of therapists offer a potential pathway to address this barrier.' https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(21)02736-7.pdf
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org