by Dr Peter Hughes MB BAO BCh FRCPsych, Chair of the Volunteering and International Psychiatry Special Interest Group at the Royal College of Psychiatry

As a mental health community we are proud to mark World Health Day, 7th April 2017, which this year has a theme of depression and suicide.

This is the first time that there has been mental health theme on World Health Day since 2001. We commemorate this day with stories of depression from over 35 countries around the world.

We know that depression is one of the most disabling conditions in global health – currently the third most disabling condition globally and predicted to be the leading and most disabling condition throughout the world by 2030.

Depression is universal, taking no account of class, religion, or ethnic group. It spares neither the rich, nor the poor. It is the silent illness causing untold misery. It leads to effects on whole families, children’s health and wellbeing.
In terms of mental health interventions, if there is just one thing we can do, it should be to diagnose and treat depression. Treatment of depression is cost-effective and cheap, with a huge dividend in well-being for the affected and their families.

In these stories we see a range of views of depression, but the same themes come up again and again – barriers to treatment, stigma, missed diagnosis and opportunities to pick up depression are universal in low-, middle- and high-income countries. The countries have been selected through our professional and personal connections and don’t represent any agenda. The views expressed belong to the individual authors.

We express our special thanks to all our contributors from around the world for this collaborative collection of stories. Thanks also to Gergana Manolova for coming up with the original idea and to the editors for their effort.
We hope to strengthen the debate about depression, to bring it out in the light and to help those suffering from it everywhere to get the help, information and treatment they deserve.

London, 2017

© 2017 Volunteering and International Psychiatry Special Interest Group, all rights reserved. Reproduction by permission only.