World Mental Health Day (10/10)

World Mental Health Day has been celebrated around the world since 1992 at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, with the aim of raising public awareness of mental health issues and ways to improve them, as well as the prevention and treatment of mental disorders.

On this Day, celebrated annually on October 10, thematic journals of international psychiatric organizations are published, and appeals are sent to government agencies and health authorities calling for participation in the international movement.

Mental health is an integral part and essential component of health. It is defined as a state of well-being in which each person can realize his or her abilities and potential, withstand the usual stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully and contribute to his or her community. In this positive sense, mental health is the basis for the well-being of each individual and the effective functioning of the entire community.

The World Health Organization said nearly 1 billion people worldwide suffer from mental disorders, 3 million people die each year as a result of alcohol abuse, and one person commits suicide every 40 seconds.

The most common mental illness is — depression. According to WHO, it currently ranks first among diseases in terms of duration of disability per year. Another negative factor for the mental health of the population was the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted the normal lives of billions of people in the world.

In Western countries, one in seven people is either paranoid/schizophrenic or susceptible to depression and alcoholism, which often ends in crime or suicide. Moreover, most people suffering from mental disorders do not have access to the treatment they need. In addition, mental disorders — are risk factors for developing other diseases (HIV, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, etc.), as well as causing unintentional and intentional injuries.

Therefore, one of the main goals of World Mental Health Day is to reduce the prevalence of depressive disorders, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, drug addiction, epilepsy, and mental retardation.

The growth of morbidity is facilitated by information overload, political and economic disasters in the world, and the harbingers of diseases are stress.

The harbingers of mental illness are stress... (Photo: Twin Design, licensed from Shutterstock.com)

Modern life in itself is conducive to stress: changes in life, political, economic, troubles at work, and just a trip on public transport lead to the fact that a person with his stress begins to come to terms with it, and depression is not far away. Stress has become an integral part of the life of modern people. People fight them without thinking about the need not to fight, but not to allow them.

It should also be noted that the Mental Health Day events are dedicated to a specific topic each year, including: «Children and Mental Health», «Mental Health and Human Rights», «Mental Health and Aging», «Interrelation of Physical and Mental Disorders», «Mental Health and Suicide Link», «Mental Health will be a global priority: Let's increase the number of services through the promotion of civic responsibility and activism», «No health without mental health», «Depression: global crisis», «Life with schizophrenia», «Mental health and human dignity», «First psychological help», «Mental health in the workplace», «Young people and mental health in a changing world», «Mental health promotion and suicide prevention», «Our goal: caring for the mental health of everyone», «Make mental health and well-being for all a global priority» and others.

In Russia, Mental Health Day has been celebrated since 2002, on the initiative of Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences T.B. Dmitrieva. On this day, various educational events are held in many Russian regions: conferences, thematic seminars, open days in psychiatric institutions, etc.



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