Health
WHO Urges Countries To Expand Community-based Mental Health Care
The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to accelerate the shift from institutionalised mental health care to community-based services that protect people’s rights, dignity and choices.
The organisation made the call in a statement on Friday ahead of World Mental Health Day, announcing a new guide to help countries reform psychiatric care and provide person-centred support within communities.
The guide outlines practical measures to reduce long-term psychiatric hospital admissions, improve institutional practices, protect patients’ rights and support people returning to their communities with adequate care.
WHO said many people with mental health conditions remained in large psychiatric hospitals and social care institutions, with nearly half reportedly held involuntarily for months, years or decades.
It explained that deinstitutionalisation involved helping people who had spent six months or longer in psychiatric hospitals return to community life with appropriate care and support.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, said people should not have to sacrifice their freedom, dignity or community relationships to receive continuous mental health support.
Ghebreyesus urged governments to reduce reliance on long-term institutional care and redirect investments towards rights-based mental health services and support within communities.
He said the guide emphasised that deinstitutionalisation could not be achieved by psychiatric hospitals alone, highlighting the importance of housing, healthcare, social support, education and employment opportunities.
The WHO chief also emphasised the need to support families and ensure that people transitioning from institutional care could access services promoting recovery and independent living.
According to the WHO Mental Health Atlas, only nine per cent of reporting countries had fully transitioned to community-based mental health care, while 53 per cent remained at an early stage of reform.
The report also found that more than one in four people admitted to psychiatric hospitals stayed for longer than six months, highlighting persistent challenges in transforming mental health services.
WHO said progress towards community-based mental health care remained uneven across countries despite ongoing efforts to strengthen services and improve support for people with mental health conditions.
“The new guide also aligns with this year’s World Mental Health Day theme, ‘Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change,’ which promotes the involvement of people with lived experience,” he said.
Ghebreyesus stressed that people who had experienced institutional care should participate actively in designing mental health policies, services and reforms that directly affected their lives.
He noted that their experiences and knowledge were essential to understanding recovery, community participation and the services needed to support people beyond psychiatric institutions.
He said the guide was developed with experts from different parts of the world, including people with lived experience, and could be adapted to national and local contexts.
Ghebreyesus urged governments and mental health services to accelerate the transition to community-based care and build systems alongside people with lived experience rather than making decisions on their behalf.
Ms Grace Gatera, an independent lived experience consultant and advocate, said community-based mental health reforms must involve people who understood institutional care through personal experience.
Gatera said their expertise, alongside that of other stakeholders, was essential to developing services that promoted individual choice, recovery and participation in community life.(NAN)
Edited by Abiemwense Moru
