What we do
Together, we leverage our unique strengths to call for investment and action on youth mental health
We are a UNICEF-led Coalition which seeks to address the increasing global burden of mental conditions in youth through investment and action.
Everything we do is centered around achieving our four objectives:
- Address stigma surrounding poor mental health and raise awareness of the need to protect children's, young people's, and their family's mental health
- Call for policymakers and governments to act on youth mental well-being
- Increase private and public investment in UNICEF’s mental health programming
- Improve business practice related to workplace mental health to support employees and their family’s mental health
Why was the Global Coalition for Youth Mental Health founded?
Despite the growing burden of mental health issues on children, adolescents, and caregivers worldwide, there is a severe global shortage of funding and action on mental health promotion and prevention.
Global mental health statistics
-
1 in 7 of 10 to 19-year-olds globally experience mental health disorders today
-
1 in 4 children are living with a parent who has a mental health disorder
-
Half of all mental health conditions begin by the age of 14 and three-quarters by the mid-20s. Most cases, while treatable, go undetected and untreated, with persisting health and socioeconomic implications throughout the life-course
Source: WHO Global Health Estimates 2020
Investment remains negligible and wide gaps exist between mental health needs and related funding
-
On average just 2.1% of government health expenditure is allocated for mental health globally
-
0.1% of development assistance to health was devoted to child and adolescent mental health
-
We pay a high economic price for this neglect – around US$387.2 billion worth of lost human potential that could go towards national economies each year.
Changing humanitarian contexts
The risk of mental health conditions and psychosocial problems among children, adolescents and their caregivers are exacerbated when they are exposed to poverty, violence, disease or humanitarian crises. In recent years, humanitarian contexts have created a more dangerous environment for child and adolescent well-being and development. Prolonged conflict, mass displacement, violence, exploitation, terrorism, disease outbreaks, intensifying natural disasters and climate change all lead to greater instability and more difficult conditions for children’s mental health and psychosocial well-being.
