Psychosocial disability is one of the more pressing development issues of our time, yet for too long it’s been a low priority.
Consider:
- The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in four people will experience an episode of mental illness in their lifetime, and approximately 600 million people worldwide are disabled as a result
- Mental and behavioral disorders account for 7.4% of the global burden of disease measured using Daily Adjusted Life Years (DALYs)
- Men and women in high income countries living with a mental health condition die 15 to 20 years earlier than those who do not
- Individuals with psychosocial disabilities in low and middle income countries are more vulnerable to poverty, hunger, conflict, trauma, and poor access to health and social care
- People living with psychosocial disability experience severe human rights violations including being
- tied to beds
- kept in isolation in psychiatric institutions
- chained and caged in small cells, and
- abused by “traditional” healing practices
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