World Mental Health Day 2020 history, significance and theme for the year

World Mental Health Day 2020 falls on October 10. The day is observed to create awareness on the subject of mental health. The main aim of such a day is to help people come out and talk about any mental health issues they might be suffering from. According to the World Health Organisation, the day will help mobilize efforts of mental health relief and established organisations that help at the global level.

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World Mental Health Day 2020

WHO writes, “This year’s World Mental Health Day, on 10 October, comes at a time when our daily lives have changed considerably as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The past months have brought many challenges: for health-care workers, providing care in difficult circumstances, going to work fearful of bringing COVID-19 home with them; for students, adapting to taking classes from home, with little contact with teachers and friends, and anxious about their futures; for workers whose livelihoods are threatened; for the vast number of people caught in poverty or in fragile humanitarian settings with extremely limited protection from COVID-19; and for people with mental health conditions, many experiencing even greater social isolation than before. And this is to say nothing of managing the grief of losing a loved one, sometimes without being able to say goodbye.”

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World Mental Health Day history

The day was first coined in 1992 when the World Federation for Mental Health’s Deputy Secretary-General Richard Hunter felt the need to raise the topic in everyone’s life. The first theme was started in the year 1994.

World Mental Health Day significance

Dr. Cherrilyn Warde-Crawford, Clinical Psychologist in conversation with sknvibes.com shed light on the need of World Mental Health Day, now more than ever. The COVID-19 deaths have taken a toll on the people who have lost their near and dear ones. She expressed that it is important to reinforce the need to talk about mental health wellbeing at such a crucial juncture in her interview with sknvibes.com.

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World Mental Health Day theme in 2020

According to World Federation of Mental Health website, every year different themes are followed. This is in direct relation to the world’s current affairs and events at that point. Take a look at all the themes over the last decade

• In 2010, the theme was ‘Mental Health and Chronic Physical Illnesses’
• In 2011 the theme was ‘The Great Push: Investing in Mental Health’
• In 2012 the theme was ‘Depression: A Global Crisis’
• In 2013 the theme was ‘Mental Health and Older Adults’
• In 2014 the theme was ‘Living with Schizophrenia’
• In 2015 the theme was ‘Dignity in Mental Health’
• In 2016 the theme was ‘Psychological and Mental Health First Aid’
• In 2017 the theme was ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’
• In 2018 the theme was ‘Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World’
• In 2019 the theme was ‘Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention’

World Mental Health Day theme in 2020 will also be different than the previous ones. This year, according to sknvibes.com the theme is ‘Mental Health for All: Greater Investment—Greater Access; Everyone, Everywhere.’ The need for World Mental Health Day theme in 2020 is to reach out to people who have lost and lived on through the global pandemic crises. The COVID-19 situation has increased the need for more facilities that help the one suffering mentally.

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