Inequitable and ineffective : exclusion of mental health from the post-2015 development agenda
Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Abstract
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted at the turn of the century, represented a milestone in global development by committing United Nations member states to eradicating extreme poverty and achieving specific targets over the subsequent decade and a half. At this time the world's attention is increasingly focused on the post-2015 development agenda, which will be unveiled in September of this year in the form of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given that mental health and other non-communicable diseases were conspicuously omitted from the MDGs, and have only been weakly mentioned in draft SDG targets, in this essay we argue for a place for mental health on the post-2015 development agenda. Its continued exclusion will not only contribute to the failure of the SDGs given the centrality of mental health in most aspects of human development and well-being but also formalize our collective failure to care for the most vulnerable among us.
Description
CITATION: Tsai, A. C. & Tomlinson, M. 2015. Inequitable and ineffective : exclusion of mental health from the post-2015 development agenda. PLoS Medicine, 12(6):e1001846, doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001846.
The original publication is available at http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine
The original publication is available at http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine
Keywords
Mental health, Sustainable Development Goals, Poverty
Citation
Tsai, A. C. & Tomlinson, M. 2015. Inequitable and ineffective : exclusion of mental health from the post-2015 development agenda. PLoS Medicine, 12(6):e1001846, doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001846