Madelyn Gee for Aljazeera

World Health Organization: Raising Awareness for Mental Health

By Madelyn Gee of the Delegation of Al Jazeera

   The World Health Organization is a subdivision of the United Nations whose principal function includes directing and coordinating authority for health within the UN system itself. The roles of the organization are comprised of providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends. The WHO insists that in the modern era, health is a shared responsibility, involving equitable access to essential care and collective defense against transnational threats. The delegation in the WHO committee opened up the discussion for the evening by sharing their respective thoughts regarding the working paper that had been finalized during the earlier committee session. Shared points that held particular emphasis in these two particular papers included the necessity of raising awareness and circulating education regarding the key issues surrounding mental health.     The delegation for the Netherlands highlighted the absolute requirement for public education concerning mental health, in addition to the furtherance of research with respect to the topic, as well as continual funding to provide the adequate facilities and resources to conduct said research. An additional look at the working paper introduced by the committee yielded startling statistics such as the frightening ratio of 4 psychiatrists to 100,000 mental health patients. Other obstacles that those who study the mind face include push back from several religious groups, that feel that it is an infringement upon their rights as practitioners of faith. Though there are several differences regarding how to proceed in raising public awareness and the education of the general public regarding the issue of mental health, all delegations can agree that action must be take in order to alleviate this pressing affair.