Public Mental Health Section
Welcome to the webpage of the WPA Public Mental Health Section! This Group continues the activities of the previous WPA Public Mental Health Special Interest Group and WPA Public Policy and Psychiatry Section. This webpage is divided into the following sections:

  • Members of WPA Public Mental Health Section

  • Public mental health background

  • Defining public mental health

  • Public mental health and WPA Action Plans

  • Activities of WPA's Public Mental Health Section

  • Relevant publications

  • Public Mental Health Training Resources

  • Other WPA Supported Public Mental Health Activities

    • Section Officers
    Chair
    Dr. Jonathan Campion
    Dr. Jonathan Campion
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    Director for Public Mental Health, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, UK; Cochair of Public Mental Health Section, European Psychiatric Association; Cochair of Public Mental Health Working Group; World Federation of Public Health Associations; Honorary Professor of Public Mental Health, University of Cape Town, South Africa
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    UK
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    Co-Chair
    Prof. Debasish Basu
    Prof. Debasish Basu
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    Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research
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    India
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    Co-Chaire
    Ann Faerden
    Ann Faerden
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    Oslo University Hospital, Acute psychiatry Building 32,
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    0407 Oslo, Norway
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    Section member list can be found here
    Public Mental Health Background

    Mental health conditions account for a large proportion of global disease burden due to a combination of high prevalence, most lifetime mental health conditions arising before adulthood, and a broad range of impacts across health including suicide, education, employment, social relationships, crime, violence and stigma. Poor mental wellbeing has a similar broad range of impacts. Crises such as pandemics and conflict further increase risk of mental health conditions, their relapse and poor mental wellbeing.

    Effective public mental health (PMH) interventions exist to treat mental health conditions, prevent associated impacts, prevent mental health conditions from arising and promote mental wellbeing. Groups at higher risk of mental health conditions and poor mental wellbeing require targeted approaches to prevent widening of inequalities.

    Globally however, only a minority of those with mental health conditions receive any treatment with far less coverage in low- and middle-income countries. Provision of interventions to prevent associated impacts is even lower, and provision of interventions to prevent mental health conditions or promote mental wellbeing is negligible. The public mental health implementation gap breaches the right to health and results in population scale preventable suffering, broad impacts and associated economic costs. Various reasons account for the gap including insufficient policy, implementation and funding with only 2% of global health expenditure allocated to mental health (WHO, 2025).

    Defining Public Mental Health
    The WPA's Public Mental Health Working Group defined public mental health as a population approach to improve coverage, outcomes and coordination of PMH interventions. This supports efficient, equitable and sustainable reduction in mental health conditions, promotion of population mental wellbeing and achievement of the UN SDG target of universal coverage.
    Public Mental Health and WPA Action Plans
    Public mental health (PMH) occupied a central place in the WPA 2020-2023 Action Plan, which was supported by a Public Mental Health Working Group. The WPA's 2023-26 Action Plan is also closely aligned with a public mental health approach and highlights that over the past decade, the WPA has broadened its mission to include the prevention of mental health conditions and promotion of good mental health.
    Activities of WPA's Public Mental Health Section

    The WPA PMH Section supports the WPA's 2023-26 Action Plan and continues the work of the WPA PMH Working Group, WPA's Public Mental Health Special Interest Group and WPA Public Mental Health Section to support:

    1. Improved implementation of evidence-based PMH interventions in different countries in the following ways:
      • Highlight opportunities to scale up implementation of a variety of PMH interventions in different cultural contexts, including for groups at increased risk of mental health conditions
      • Support translation of evidence into practice including through policy
      • Raise awareness of the importance and prioritisation of PMH in national policies
      • Support national assessments of unmet PMH needs across diverse populations, and required actions, which then inform policy development and implementation.
      • Support PMH training including through digital platforms
      • Work with the WPA Medical Student Special Interest Group to support PMH training as well as sustainable reduction in medical student psychiatric morbidity
      • Collaborate with the WPA Service Users and Family Supporters SIG
      • Support integrated PMH approaches to disease management and prevention through engagement with primary care, general health systems, public health and other sectors
    2. WPA associated work including publications (below), presentations and the Specialist Corner of the WPA 2023-26 Action Plan, which includes public mental health as a cross cutting theme
    3. Collaboration with other organizations including WHO, World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA), OECD and United Nations including for the 2025 UN Political Declaration on NCDs and mental health
    4. Disseminate PMH relevant work including publications, webinars, presentations and training resources
    Publications by the WPA Public Mental Health Working Group and Special Interest Group

    The WPA Public Mental Health Section continues the activities of the WPA Public Mental Health Working Group and Special Interest Group which has published the following:

    Other Public Mental Health Publications
    Public Mental Health Training Resources

    Available global public mental health training by region and country has been outlined in BJPsych Advances (2025) The case for global public mental health training

    Examples of Public Mental Health Training Programmes:

    Supporting psychiatrist work in public mental health
    Other WPA Supported Public Mental Health Activities
    In memory of Gabriela Cruz Ares passed away on the 18th of July 2025 in Hamburg, Germany.

    Gabriela Cruz Ares was chair of the Section Public Policy and Psychiatry from 2022 until 2025. She joined the section in 2019 as co-chair. She was too young to leave us, just 49 years old. Gabriela was foremost a lovely human being, a very dedicated psychiatrist and a creative, inspiring and supportive member of the Section. She initiated and took part in all the symposia we submitted and presented at the different WPA meetings. The last presentation our section had with Gabriela was at the WPA World congress in Vienna in 2023 with the title: “Ecosystems, Nature and Mental Health – can public policy make a positive contribution?”, which was an intersectional symposium between the Section for Public Policy and Psychiatry and the Section for Evolutionary Psychiatry.

    Gabriela was born in Mexico where she studied medicine, with a post degree in forensic psychiatry. She met her husband Jan in Berlin during a vacation in 2009. He moved first to Mexico to be with her, where their first daughter was born. They then moved to Germany in 2011, where Gabriela got to work as a doctor in a day clinic in psychiatry. Her second daughter was born in 2015. She then started the long road for acceptance as a German psychiatrist which was achieved in 2020. Since then, she worked in the department of psychiatry and psychotherapy in Asklepios Westklinikum in Hamburg, Germany.

    Her passing away is so very, very sad, mostly for her two daughters and husband, but for us in the Public Policy section, there is also an empty space after her. We miss her, with her characteristic smile, positivity, her way of saying “super”, her engagement, her professionalism, new ideas for the field and always eager to support public policy in psychiatry. We will try to do our best without her.

    Members of the Public Policy and Psychiatry section,
    Ann Faerden, Vivienne Miller, Alan Rosen, Mariana Pinto da Costa
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