Experts called on world leaders at this week’s United Nations General Assembly to pay more attention to brain health, which they say doesn’t receive much attention and funding.
Although the brain serves as a command center for people’s thoughts, emotions, movements, and information, there’s a whole range of conditions and diseases that affect the complex organ, including autism, depression, anxiety, as well as neurological disorders like Parkinson’s and dementia.
Mental health conditions alone affect over 1 billion people globally, according to the most recent findings by the World Health Organization. Yet the U.N. agency finds governments on average spend just around 2% of their budgets on mental health services, unchanged since 2017.
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About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
