Health News| Global Community Leaders launch mhNOW partnership to improve Mental Health

The Mental Health Now (mhNOW) initiative will launch at the inaugural Financing and Innovation in Global Health (FIGH) conference today.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), mental illness is increasing worldwide. Between 1990 and 2013, the number of people suffering from depression and/or anxiety increased by nearly 50%, from 416 million to 615 million.

The mhNOW initiative aims to do more than just treat mental illness. The initiative will effectively address mental health in a way that encourages total health and supports the whole person, their families and their community.
Beyond the community level, better health equates with more years of productivity, and greater productivity over a long period can lead to growth for economies. In doing so, this initiative has the potential to save the global economy trillions of dollars every year. The launch of mhNOW follows the World Bank and WHO's co-hosted meeting, Out of the Shadows: Making Mental Health a Global Development Priority, where the two organizations encouraged international leaders to bring mental health to the forefront of the global health agenda and invest in cost-effective, affordable and feasible interventions. Mental health was also recently added to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to transform the world by 2030. Implementing mental health solutions at scale by 2030 has the potential to save $6 trillion and increase the ability of citizens to lead more positive and economically productive lives. The mhNOW initiative urges donors, private sector, NGOs and civil society to invest in and commit to mental health, and join the growing list of founding partners to optimize resources and leverage assets to improve total health for all.