On the occasion of the World Mental Health Day HRH Crown Princess Katherine sends her message to everybody to take good care of their psychological well-being and emphasizes that her Foundation will in the future continue focusing on working on projects aimed to help and raise awareness of the importance of mental health.
As World Health Organization states, the overall objective of World Mental Health Day is to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilize efforts in support of mental health. The Day provides an opportunity for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to talk about their work, and what more needs to be done to make mental health care a reality for people worldwide. It was first celebrated in 1992 at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global mental health organization with members and contacts in more than 150 countries. The slogan for marking the Day this year is “Make mental health for all a global priority”.
“The times we all live in are turbulent. As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic started to calm down, which already left many dangerous effects on everybody’s mental health, new crises have begun to rise, including the most dangerous one – the terrible war in Ukraine, with too many innocent people killed, and leaving thousands of women and children without their homes. But even those people who are not directly inflicted by the war are living in fear, not knowing what tomorrow is bringing to them, faced with the economic consequences of this war and the crisis spreading through the world.
As World Health Organization warns us, depression is today a leading cause of disability worldwide, and with the already mentioned unstable situation in the world, we are all affected emotionally, and this all leaves a negative impact on the mental health of a very large number of people. This is something that affects everybody, and no matter if you are a teenager or older, taking care of our mind is important at every stage of our lives and just as we help ourselves, so should we help others. We must find time to devote ourselves every day to something that makes us and the people that are close to us happy and relieved.
Anyone can have a bad day, but it doesn’t mean that it should become a bad life. How we respond to the difficulties we are facing and taking care of our mental health is what is important. So, permit yourself to ask for help and to be there for those who need help, who feel sad and overwhelmed. Your physical and mental health are most valuable, and we have a responsibility to preserve life, which is a gift from God. Sometimes even a simple smile and a kind word of comfort can mean so much. A simple gesture of kindness can mean so much to others, and it will make us feel better as well“, said HRH Crown Princess Katherine.