Overview

As part of the QualityRights Initiative, WHO has developed a comprehensive package of training and guidance materials. The materials can be used to build capacity among mental health practitioners, people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities, people using mental health services, families, care partners and other supporters, nongovernmental organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities and others on how to implement a human rights and recovery approach in the area of mental health in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with...

Executive summary

Mental health has received increased attention over the last decade from governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and multilateral organizations including the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank. With increased awareness of the importance of providing person-centred, human rights-based and recovery-oriented care and services, mental health services worldwide are striving to provide quality care and support. Yet often services face substantial resource restrictions, operate within outdated legal and regulatory frameworks and an entrenched overreliance on the...

Background

Thousands of people have lost their lives due to overdose-related fatalities linked to the potent synthetic opioid epidemic, as mortalities increase annually. British Columbia (B.C.) Canada has been an exception, where the population not only has more liberal views on illegal drugs, but overdose death numbers have reduced for the first time in recent months. The reduction of overdose deaths in BC and liberal views have taken place in conjunction with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users’ (VANDU) advocacy growth over the past two decades.

Methods

The Canadian Newsstream...

Youth mental health is a growing global crisis, with most mental health conditions beginning before the age of 25. Young people today face increasing stress from poverty, academic and social pressure, bullying (including online), climate anxiety, and uncertainty about the future, while mental health services struggle to keep up with demand. Although governments play a critical role, philanthropic investment can help strengthen the social determinants of youth mental health and support prevention at scale. Despite growing global attention, including commitments through the UN Sustainable...

Smokeless tobacco use is very common in South Asia, but there is limited evidence on effective ways to help users quit. This randomized study evaluated a face-to-face behavioural support program (BISCA) compared with self-help materials among adult smokeless tobacco users attending a dental hospital. One hundred participants who were motivated to quit were included. The BISCA group showed better outcomes for most tobacco withdrawal symptoms and slightly higher quit rates than the self-help group, though the difference was not statistically significant. Given the high prevalence of smokeless...

Nivishe Foundation successfully launched “Understanding Emotions,” the first chapter in its groundbreaking Brainwaves Comic Book Series, one of Africa’s first comic books dedicated to mental health education.

The series uses relatable storytelling and vibrant illustrations to help young people understand emotions, break mental health stigma, and build resilience. It transforms complex psychological concepts into simple, accessible lessons that speak directly to the realities of adolescents and youth in Kenya’s informal settlements.

Since its launch in Nairobi, the comic has reached over 2...

The United Nations Youth Office launched the flagship initiative on Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing! The initiative promotes an ecosystem model for youth mental health and wellbeing, using a whole-of-society approach.

The initiative was launched at the Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha. The launch video is available here

This flagship initiative by the UN Youth office reframes the conversation to a broader vision grounded in care, connection and community. This effort bridges policy leadership with youth-led movements across the world centering young people as equal...

The WHO Africa Mental Health Dashboard, accessible via WHO AFRO Mental Health Dashboard, consolidates key indicators into a single, interactive platform that enables users to track progress, identify gaps and align national efforts with regional and global targets. It is designed to support ministries of health, policymakers, WHO staff, technical partners and the public in making informed decisions and driving action.

The dashboard features an AI-powered chatbot that simplifies complex insights for users, making the data more accessible.

Data is sourced from WHO, GBD, the Mental Health Atlas...

The ESPAD report presents the results of the eighth data-collection wave, which took place in 2024, and marks an impressive 30 years of data collection by this long-standing collaboration. More than 113 000 15- to 16-year-old students from 37 countries, including 25 EU Member States, took part. Since 1995, over 800 000 students have contributed, making ESPAD the most extensive harmonised data collection on substance use and risk behaviours in Europe, and the largest cross- national research project on adolescent substance use worldwide.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) transforms complex data into insights that reflect real human experiences. Every aspect of the Canadian Substance Use Cost and Harms (CSUCH) project represents individuals with lived or living experience of substance use, along with their families, workplaces, and communities.

A new resource highlights these journeys and the human cost of substance use through illustrated stories from people with lived experience and their families. The illustrations cover three key areas of the CSUCH project: healthcare, lost productivity, and...

Introduction

Prevention science is interdisciplinary, drawing upon multiple fields of research and practice to develop integrated knowledge. A challenge facing the field is the proliferation of different terms with the same meaning, and of terms with different meanings. This can create confusion in communication, affect evaluation standards, and ultimately also affect the implementation of preventive interventions. Contributing to the development of evidence standards for preventive interventions, this article describes the process and results of interdisciplinary prevention terminology...