- Global challenges worsen mental health. Poverty, displacement and climate change harm mental health, especially for children and families.
- Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) needs more resources. Expanding mental health support requires trained professionals, accessible programmes, and destigmatization efforts.
- Holistic, sustainable solutions are key. Integrated, well-funded MHPSS programmes improve well-being for individuals, families and communities.
The social determinants of mental health and well-being are local, regional and global: local conditions of adversity are increasingly compounded by regional and global threats such as extreme poverty, conflict, displacement and climate change.
The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risks Report identified “severe mental health deterioration” as a worsening global risk that “negatively impacts well-being, social cohesion and productivity”. The 2024 report continued to identify “chronic physical and mental health conditions” along with broader global threats to well-being, including armed conflict, extreme weather, lack of economic opportunity and societal polarization. Such challenges can have devastating impacts on the mental health and psychosocial well-being of children, families and communities. Quality, sustainable mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) approaches for communities facing adversity can improve well-being for generations.
MHPSS offers an opportunity to interrupt the negative impact of stress caused by such hardships to improve the well-being of children, families and communities around the world. The immediate psychosocial well-being of children and their families is improved by MHPSS and the negative impact of stress is mitigated in ways that help keep the individual safe and prevent future mental health problems. A snowball effect ensues in which individuals, both children and adults, are better able to function and engage in society in ways that improve their health, education, social and economic outcomes.
Meeting global challenges: How can we improve and expand MHPSS?
Improving and expanding MHPSS is incredibly challenging in settings with limited resources. It requires social workers, psychologists, health workers, teachers, school counsellors and others responsible for the education, healthcare and social protection of children and families. In many locations around the world, there are simply not enough MHPSS providers available to meet local needs. Increased public and private sector funding is desperately needed to improve and expand MHPSS including:
- Increased professionalization and expansion of the MHPSS workforce (increased training, supervision and support for MHPSS service providers, including integration of MHPSS into training of non-specialists) and increased low-cost or no-cost access to MHPSS services and supports.
- Development of non-clinical MHPSS supports in schools and community-based programmes including those that can be delivered by teachers, paraprofessional social workers or school counsellors and community health workers.
- MHPSS promotion through public messaging and communications campaigns that destigmatise mental health and improve public knowledge of how to access local MHPSS services and supports.
The work of Save the Children
Save the Children is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) that supports the health, education and protection of children in 115 countries around the world. One critical component of this work is the integration of multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary and multi-layered MHPSS into schools, health clinics, community centres and other spaces that support children, families and communities affected by adversity.
Save the Children’s MHPSS programming aims to use a socio-ecological model in which the child, family and broader community have access to different types of MHPSS to meet different needs at different points in their lives.
This life-cycle approach means providing MHPSS to parents and caregivers to improve their well-being and ability to support their children’s well-being. It involves offering school-based MHPSS such as structured psychosocial support activities for all children in the classroom delivered by teachers alongside the work of school counsellors who provide more focused support to those children in need of extra help.
It improves access to specialized clinical mental health services through referral systems by connecting schools, social support programmes, health clinics and specialized service providers. Additionally, it includes well-being activities for staff who support the education, health and social protection of children and families, ensuring they also receive the MHPSS they need.
The work of the World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum’s Healthy Workforces Initiative aims to improve the holistic health and well-being of employees, their families and society at large, by leveraging the workplace setting to promote preventative health.
The Forum collaborates with leaders across public and private sectors, academia and civil society to increase awareness, share leading global insights and bolster the case for increased investment in workforce well-being.
The way forward: Recommendations for global stakeholders
Addressing the mental health and psychosocial support needs of children and families around the world requires the long-term commitment and coordination of donors, policy-makers, training institutions and practitioners. It requires the expansion of the MHPSS workforce and the integration of MHPSS into local health, education and social support systems. Some key practical recommendations for global stakeholders include:
- Support approaches that use a socio-ecological model of support by providing MHPSS for children, families and the broader community including a focus on staff well-being.
- Support MHPSS programming that meets individuals where they are – at schools, health clinics, community centres, nutrition support centres or any location where individuals regularly seek services and supports related to their health, education and well-being. This requires increased training and support for staff already working in these spaces and the introduction of new MHPSS professionals into these spaces when needed.
- Support improved coordination between services and supports to increase the effectiveness of mental health referrals in local communities.
- Support multi-year funding strategies that ensure a continuum of support for communities in need over time.
Together, we can improve the mental health and psychosocial well-being of children, families and communities both today and for generations to come.
