Dr Amin A Muhammad marks World Mental Health Day with a call for Ireland to take the lead in investing in the prevention of mental illness.

World Mental Health Day is being celebrated this year on October 10. This year’s theme given by the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) is ‘The Great Push: Investment in Mental Health Care’.

Such a theme has obviously been chosen with great care because of the fact that the increasing incidence and prevalence of mental illness the world over is taking its toll on the economies of the world. According to the WHO, around 450 million people in the world suffer from a mental or behavioural disorder, more than 150 million persons suffer from depression at any point in time, and nearly 1 million commit suicide every year.

Furthermore, about 25 million suffer from schizophrenia, 38 million suffer from epilepsy and more than 90 million have an alcohol or drug use disorder......