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In 2007, The Lancet published a groundbreaking Series on global mental health that ended with a call to action to scale up services for people with mental health problems guided by the twin principles of the right to evidence-based care and the right to dignity.1 This Series helped catalyse a movement that has raised the profile of mental health in public policies and promoted research, capacity building, and delivery of mental health care worldwide. The Series also influenced the launch of the Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health,2 which, in turn, inspired substantial funding commitments. These investments led to a flourishing of innovative approaches to implementation of mental health interventions,3 some of which were included in a second Lancet Series in 2011.
The knowledge generated by these initiatives has shown that many mental health problems can be prevented and treated effectively, that a range of best practice interventions can be implemented across a range of population, community, and health-care delivery platforms in low-resource settings, and that public financing of scaling up is affordable and increases financial protection for individuals and families affected by mental disorders.4 This knowledge base has also fuelled the growing importance of mental health in the global discourse on development, as indicated by the adoption of WHO's Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020,5 the explicit inclusion of mental health in the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the forthcoming high-level meeting on mental health co-hosted by the World Bank and WHO on April 13-14, 2016.
Giacomo Pirozzi
Despite this momentum, most people affected by mental health problems globally continue to be denied at least one of the two rights recommended in the 2007 call to action.1 This treatment gap contributes to the high, and rising, burden attributable to these disorders which, as a group, are the largest contributor to years lived with disability and have persistently high rates of excess and premature mortality.4 However, the burden of mental health problems cannot be...