World Mental Health Day (WMHD) and World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) both serve as key opportunities to raise awareness of the importance of mental health and suicide prevention. While observed separately, their aims are closely aligned: to increase understanding, reduce stigma, and ensure that people everywhere have access to the support they need.
This year’s World Mental Health Day comes at a time when many communities continue to face crisis and upheaval. In IASPs recent statement on the impact of armed conflict, we highlighted how violence, displacement, and instability can have severe and long-lasting effects on mental health. These circumstances can heighten vulnerability to distress and suicidal behaviour, yet mental health support is too often underfunded or absent in humanitarian response.
World Mental Health Day is therefore a reminder that mental health must be treated as a core priority during and after emergencies. Alongside food, shelter, and medical care, people need access to psychosocial support and safe spaces to recover and reconnect. Such services must be timely, accessible, and culturally sensitive to meet the needs of those affected.
IASP continues to advocate for Changing the Narrative on Suicide. This means ensuring that mental health and suicide prevention are not overlooked—whether in times of stability or of crisis, that conversations around suicide are met with understanding, dignity, and hope.
