WHO's Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020: what can psychiatrists do to facilitate its implementation?

Abstract

Adoption of the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 by the World Health Assembly in May 2013 provides the clearest example to date of the increasing commitment by governments to enhance the priority given to mental health within their health and public policy. The fact that all countries – large and small, rich and poor, and from all regions of the world – have agreed on a common vision for mental health along with objectives to reach defined targets within a specified time period, gives ample testimony to the strength of current political commitment for mental health across the world. This paper briefly introduces World Health Organization (WHO)'s Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 (the Plan) 1 and proposes some activities by psychiatrists that can facilitate its implementation.