BARCELONA/MANILA — While the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals seek to ensure healthy lives and well-being for all, mental health spending remains relatively low compared with other areas of global health.
Last year, donors gave $160 million in aid for mental health, according to data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, equating to just 0.39% of the total $41 billion of development aid for health.
Evidence suggests that three-quarters of the mental health disease burden is in low- and middle-income countries — settings where there can be fewer than 2 mental health workers per 100,000 people.