About World Health Day

World Health Day is an annual event of the World Health Organization (WHO). A new theme is selected each year to highlight public health issues of world-wide concern.

World Health Day 2001 was a global advocacy and awareness-raising activity dedicated to mental health issues. The prime objective was to impact public opinion and stimulate debate on how to improve the current condition of mental health around the world. International attention is thankfully increasing for mental health issues, however, much still needs to be done. No country and no person is immune to mental disorders and their impact in psychological, social and economic terms is very high. Some 450 million people in the world suffer from mental or neurological disorders or from psychosocial problems such as those related to alcohol and drug abuse. Of every four people who turn to the health services for help, at least one is troubled by these disorders which are often not correctly diagnosed and thus not treated. We have solutions to treat many disorders and to permit persons with mental/brain disorder to be functioning members of the community. Yet, societies still raise barriers to both the care and the reintegration of people with mental disorders.

For the purposes of the Day, WHO focussed attention on the key concerns of care and exclusion as demonstrated by a limited number of disorders: depressive disorders, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, alcohol dependence, epilepsy and mental retardation. The selected disorders are representative world-wide of the gap between available means of intervention and their application for both mental and neurological disorders. Each country/organisation adapted its activities for World Health Day to focus on the problems and disorders having significant impact in their communities while addressing the overarching need for more care and less exclusion.

A maximum number of events were organised around the globe on World Health Day on 7^th April 2001 by WHO and by organisations concerned about mental and neurological disorders. For more detailed information, please see different sections of this page reitaining to organization of events and their outcome.