World Mental Health Day – 10th October 2012

Today is the 20th annual World Mental Health Day; a day to raise public awareness about mental health issues. The day promotes open discussion of mental disorders and this year the theme for the day is Depression - A Global Crisis.

It is estimated that depression affects more than 350 million people of all ages, in all communities. Although there are known effective treatments for depression, access to treatment is a problem in most countries and in some countries fewer than 10% of those who need it receive such treatment.

A little more about depression...

Depression is a common mental disorder, characterised by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, feelings of tiredness, and poor concentration. The World Health Organization is promoting the following video to raise awareness of what a life with depression can be like: 

Depression can be long-lasting or recurrent, substantially impairing an individual’s ability to function at work or school or cope with daily life. At its most severe, depression can lead to suicide. When mild, people can be treated without medicines but when depression is moderate or severe they may need medication and professional talking treatments.

Depression is a disorder that can be reliably diagnosed and treated by non-specialists as part of primary health care. Specialist care is needed for a small proportion of individuals with complicated depression or those who do not respond to first-line treatments.

Local support…

Mind, the mental health charity, believes no one should have to face a mental health problem alone. Mind will listen and offer support and advice to anyone and through a network of local Minds they provide direct support to almost 250,000 people in the UK each year.

For more information about depression and support that is available through Mind visit http://www.mind.org.uk.