Advocacy for Mental Health : Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package

The WHO has developed a mental health policy and service guidance package to help implement the policy recommendations of the World Health Report 2001: "Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope".

The package consists of a series of inter-related and user-friendly modules designed to address the wide variety of needs and priorities in policy development and service planning.

Each module addresses a core aspect of mental health. Mental health advocacy is a relatively new concept, developed with a view to reducing stigma and discrimination and promoting the human rights of people with mental disorders.

It consists of various actions aimed at changing the major structural and attitudinal barriers achieving positive mental health outcomes in populations. This module draws attention to the importance of advocacy in mental health policy and service development.

The roles of various mental health groups in advocacy are outlined.

Practical steps are then recommended, indicating how ministries of health can support advocacy.