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Co-hosted by:

Devex     Global Mental Health Action Network   


About the event

In 2020 the focus of UNGA is the “Decade of Action”, focussing on the final ten years of action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To achieve the SDGs — and particularly Goal 3 of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all — it is vital that we include mental health.

Ensuring good mental health for all means guaranteeing the fundamental right to mental health support, not only through equitable access to mental health services through health systems, but by the promotion of good mental health throughout society and the environments we live in. Therefore, in order to promote wellbeing and productivity mental health investment needs to happen across multiple social and economic development issues. Our mental health has an impact on every aspect of our lives, and likewise, mental health is intertwined with all SDGs; it is currently the most untapped and underinvested resource to ensure progress on the SDGs.

As we gear up to the decade of delivery, to not only build back societies and health systems following the pandemic — but also to resume efforts to achieve the SDGs — we must ensure accelerated action to guarantee mental health for all. With hundreds of millions of people trapped at home during the pandemic, and its consequent lockdowns, and so many experiencing traumatic events, and the severe interruption to mental health services, mental health has become an even more prominent issue – it is crucial that strong mental health policies are at the center of recovery efforts.

To coincide with the 75th session of the U.N. General Assembly, Devex, together with The Global Mental Health Action Network, we hosted a virtual event to convene a panel of experts to raise the profile of mental health issues and connect them to overall progress on the SDGs. The event also explored opportunities for the Global mental Health Action Network to further accelerate progress on the issue through increased collaboration and advocacy.

Watch the event recording above. 




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The Speakers

Moderator

Kate Warren

Executive Vice President
Devex
Kate Warren is Executive Vice President and resident talent and careers guru at Devex. With 15 years of global development recruitment experience advising international NGOs, consulting firms, and donor agencies, she has a finger on the pulse of hiring trends across the industry and insider knowledge on what it takes to break in.

Squidward Tentacles

Cashier
Krusty Krab
I then began: “Consider, Poet, thou that guidest me, if strong my virtue be, or e’er thou trust me to the arduous course. Thou sayest that the sire of Silvio entered, when still corruptible, the immortal world, and that while in his body he was there. Hence, that to him the Opponent of all ill was courteous, considering the great result that was to come from him, both who, and what, seems not unfitting to a thoughtful man; for he of fostering Rome and of her sway in the Empyrean Heaven was chosen as sire;

Sandra Jennifer "Sandy" Cheeks

Squirrel
From the Surface
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”

Jasmine Kalha

Indian Law Society - Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy
Jasmine Kalha has an M.Phil in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, before which she had completed her Master of Arts in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her area of work focuses on mental health, gender, and human rights. She started her journey at CMHLP in 2014 by coordinating implementation research work in QualityRights Gujarat, after which she was the project manager for Atmiyata Gujarat, in the district of Mehsana. She is currently the Programme Manager and Research Fellow at CMHLP, working on SPIRIT (Suicide Prevention and Implementation Research Initiative) Gujarat. She is a consultant at Tata Trusts, for QualityRights intervention at Nagpur Mental Hospital, Maharashtra (Udaan). Additionally, she is an online coach for QualityRights e-training by WHO, Geneva.

Vikram Patel

The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health in the Blavatnik Institute's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Vikram Patel is The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health in the Blavatnik Institute's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is an adjunct professor and joint director of the Centre for Chronic Conditions and Injuries at the Public Health Foundation of India, honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (where he co-founded the Centre for Global Mental Health in 2008), and is a co-founder of Sangath, an Indian NGO which won the MacArthur Foundation’s International Prize for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2008 and the WHO Public Health Champion of India award in 2016. He is a fellow of the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences and has served on several WHO expert and Government of India committees. His work on the burden of mental disorders, their association with poverty and social disadvantage, and the use of community resources for the delivery of interventions for their prevention and treatment has been recognized by the Chalmers Medal (Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, UK), the Sarnat Medal (US National Academy of Medicine), an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University, the Pardes Humanitarian Prize (the Brain & Behaviour Research Foundation), an honorary OBE from the UK Government and the Posey Leadership Award (Austin College). He also works in the areas of child development and adolescent health. He was listed in TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential persons of the year in 2015.

Claudia Sartor

Deputy Chief Executive Officer
The Global Mental Health Peer Network
Claudia, an attorney of law by profession, is a global mental health advocacy leader whose passion for mental health was inspired by having personal experience living with a mood disorder.
​After undergoing treatment, Claudia chose to pursue a career in Psychology. When she was not working and studying, she spent her time volunteering at a local mental health counselling call centre. In spite of the hardships she endured, she takes comfort from knowing that every day she gets to help people. She gets to speak up for and represent the voices and opinions of those living with a mental health condition.

Karlee Silver

Co-Chief Executive Officer, Ex-Officio Board Member
Grand Challenges Canada
Karlee Silver is Co-CEO of Grand Challenges Canada, giving leadership and oversight to all aspects of the organization’s activities together with Co-CEO Jocelyn Mackie. Prior to being appointed co-CEO, Dr. Silver was VP Programs where she set strategy for development and humanitarian innovation initiatives, and enabled the programs, investments, and knowledge management teams to source, support, and transition to scale promising innovations for social impact in low- and middle-income countries. She represents Grand Challenges Canada in the International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA) and in the Grand Challenge network, and advises on a range of global initiatives aligned with women’s and children’s health and development and global mental health. She is the Chair of the Every Woman Every Child Innovation Marketplace Steering Committee.

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”
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