WHO Director-General’s remarks at Symposium on Mental Health Services for Adolescents – 27 November 2024

Your Excellency Ambassador Xu Chen,

Your Excellency Ambassador Paul Bekkers,

UNICEF Regional Director Regina De Dominicis,

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

It is a pleasure and an honour to welcome you to this symposium on mental health services for adolescents, and the launch of our new guidance with UNICEF.

I thank Ambassadors Xu and Paul for hosting this important event, and UNICEF for its partnership.

Mental health conditions are common and emerge early in life.

Globally, one in seven adolescents experience mental health conditions;

And suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29 years.

Yet few of the world's adolescents can access the nurturing environments and quality mental health services they need.

Countries are not giving enough attention and priority to young people's mental health in our plans and allocation of resources, including in the training and deployment of the health care workforce.

We are not giving young people an opportunity to express their voice.

That is why UNICEF and WHO have partnered with governments, civil society and youth organizations through the Joint Programme on Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-being and Development of Children and Adolescents.

Together, we worked to strengthen multisectoral coordination and country capacity to deliver opportunities, support and services for young people's mental health.

After two years of country-led actions, almost 6 million children, adolescents, and caregivers have improved access to information and services for mental health.

Let me give you a few examples.

In Egypt, the health and education sectors have created a groundbreaking partnership to establish mental health centres in schools.

These services are also accessible to the wider community, including Sudanese refugees living in the school catchment areas.

In North Macedonia, the Ministry of Health, with support from WHO, partnered with 300 women leaders from local municipalities.

They were given mental health training so they could facilitate forums and school visits in their communities, to share coping skills and solutions with parents, teachers and school staff.

In Côte d'Ivoire, more than 200 social workers were trained to provide mental health care and support to families in a large refugee population in the north of the country.

The guidance that WHO and UNICEF have developed shows how every country can take action to improve access and quality of care for mental health services for children and young people.

I believe that this guide can inspire change.

Let me leave you with two key priorities.

First, we must address the neglect of adolescent mental health in policy priorities and budgets, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Substantial additional investments should be made to promote integration of mental health care in primary health care, and in schools and community centres.

Second, we need to scale up what works.

The UNICEF-WHO Joint Programme on Children and Adolescents' Mental Health, which is currently active in 13 countries, has proved how coordinated responses and modest investment, of about 5 million US dollars, can spark change in countries.

They are reaching nearly 8 million young people, families and care providers.

We need to expand partnerships like these to promote transformation in health and education systems for improving services for young people.

Thank you all once again for your commitment to improving the mental health of our future generations.

Because as I always say, there is no health without mental health.

I thank you.

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