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Chris Underhill, founder Director BasicNeeds, reflects on the importance of World Mental Health Day

Dear Friends,

I wanted to write a few lines to mark 10th October which is World Mental Health Day. This is a moment in time when we can really reflect on the situation of people who experience mental illness and in the case of BasicNeeds how we have supported them to date and what more we can do in the future. The theme of World Mental Health Day this year focuses on depression and the increase of this condition as a leading cause of disability worldwide. On 10th October I will be at the WHO in Geneva attending the "mhGAP" Forum and this year we will be focusing on the final draft of the Global Mental Health Action Plan. At BasicNeeds as of June this year we have reached 531,593 beneficiaries which include 104,234 people with mental illness, 83,387 carers and 343,972 family members. There is a great deal of work still to do as the WHO Action Plan makes clear but I celebrate the efforts being made by BasicNeeds staff, boards members, volunteers and, in particular, partner organisations in the struggle to support people with mental illness.


Chris Underhill
Founder Director, BasicNeeds

9/10/2012