Thousands of people with mental health problems worldwide are deprived of their human rights. They are not only discriminated, but stigmatized and marginalized, and also subjected to emotional and physical abuse both in mental health institutions and in their communities. Poor quality health care due to lack of qualified health workers and poor facilities lead to successive violations.
The topic for the World Mental Health Day this year, celebrated on October 10, it is “Dignity and mental health.” This year, WHO aims to educate health professionals and the public about what can be done to ensure that people with mental health disorders can continue to live with dignity through targeted policies on human rights by the training health professionals , adherence to informed policy about treatment, inclusion in decision-making processes and public information campaigns.
Scientific and technical literature
BIREME/PAHO/WHO recommends access to documents and sources of scientific and technical information in the Virtual Health Library (VHL) related to World Heart Day.
Links of interest
PAHO on World Mental Health Day 2015
WHO on World Mental Health Day 2015
WHO Resources on Mental Health on the Americas
World Federation on mental Health
WHO homepage on Substance Abuse
PAHO homepage on Substance Abuse
Primary Health Care on Mental Health – Ministry of Health of Brazil (in Portuguese)
