Category: Mental Health & Policy
Date: November 7, 2025
Published by: Yarima.org Editorial Health Team
Reading time: ~2 minutes
🌍 Why It Matters
Mental health is now widely recognized as a fundamental human right, yet children and youth remain underserved in global policy and investment.
According to the United Nations, 1 in 7 adolescents (ages 10–19) experiences a mental health condition — often unrecognized and untreated.
Even as awareness grows, no UN resolution has yet placed child and youth mental health at the center of the global development and human rights agenda.
The result: fragmented strategies, underfunded programs, and missed opportunities for early intervention — despite evidence that prevention and community-based care are both scalable and cost-effective.
⚠️ The Policy Gap
A new joint statement by UNESCO, UNICEF, the UN Youth Office, and WHO highlights four key gaps that continue to leave young people behind:
- No dedicated global resolutions on child and youth mental health
- Lack of age-specific commitments within UN frameworks
- Weak or missing youth participation in shaping policies
- Insufficient oversight and accountability for mental health funding
The statement notes that only 56% of countries have a policy or plan addressing child and youth mental health — and fewer than half provide adequate school- or community-based services.
🤝 A Joint Call to Action
To close these gaps, the UN agencies are calling for bold, coordinated action:
- Elevate and invest in child and youth mental health as a standalone global priority in future UN resolutions and monitoring systems.
- Create a unified inter-agency platform — uniting UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, and partners — to align global guidance, funding, and accountability.
- Encourage national strategies aligned with the WHO Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan and the UNICEF–WHO Joint Programme on child and adolescent well-being.
- Ensure meaningful youth participation — allowing young people to shape, implement, and evaluate mental health policies as equal partners.
- Invest in prevention and protection, connecting schools, communities, digital spaces, and families to create nurturing, stigma-free environments.
- Integrate mental health data into broader education and health monitoring tools, ensuring visibility and accountability across systems.
💬 A Shared Responsibility
The statement emphasizes that improving youth mental health requires whole-of-society collaboration — spanning education, health, climate, social protection, and digital policy.
It also highlights the importance of safe, inclusive learning environments, echoing the 2023 UNESCO Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights, and Sustainable Development.
When youth are heard, supported, and empowered, societies don’t just reduce suffering — they build resilience, inclusion, and hope for future generations.
Reference:
UNESCO, UNICEF, UN Youth Office & World Health Organization. (2025, November 7). Joint call to strengthen policy and investment for child and youth mental health and well-being. UN Joint Statement