The UN ceiling painting (above) is by Spanish abstract artist Miquel Barceló at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. 
The sculpture consists of many layers of coloured paints composed of pigments from across the globe, sprayed across the ceiling to create stalactites. The work is groundbreaking both artistically and technically and represents the themes of multiculturalism, mutual tolerance and understanding between cultures.
Photo: Courtesy UN Geneva
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live at the UN
Here is the link to the UNITED NATIONS live streaming from San Jose, CA:

​Mental Health in the UN Development Agenda for 2030 
The United Nations adopts the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and strengthen Mental Health

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​The UN will need to make the Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) work
by-- measuring them by specific "indicators". 

These indicators will be adopted by the UN around November or later (they are still being negotiated).
The only way that mental health will really matter in the development Agenda 2030 is if there are
very strong indicators (measurements) in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

FundaMentalSDG proposes the following 2 indicators:​
Indicator 23: Probability of dying between exact ages 30 and 70 from any of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, or suicide
Indicator 28: Proportion of persons with a severe mental disorder (psychosis, bipolar affective disorder, or moderate-severe depression) who are using services
These indicators are fully aligned with the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Mental Health Action Plan. 

Here is how we can each Take Action:
FundaMentalSDG has drafted a position paper and supporting documents.
Please send these documents to your national statistics department (if you have a direct contact to them, or to a general email address). In addition, you can also send these to UN STATs: [email protected], with a simple email asking for inclusion of the indicators 23 & 28.  
Thank you. 
UN SDG: Mental Health Position Paper
Download File
Annex: WHO 100 core health indicators: Suicide rate & Coverage
Download File
Annex: GBD 2010 - Depressive disorders
Download File
Annex: FundaMentalSDG - Agenda2030 SDGs & Mental Health
Download File
​Mental Health in the UN Development Agenda for 2030 
The United Nations adopts the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and strengthens Mental Health
The United Nations have adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Agenda2030 is an ambitous document, featuring 17 new sustainable development goals and 169 targets, that will define global development from 2015 to 2030. For the first time, the UN have included mental health! 
In the new SDGs mental health is included in the 'declaration' part:
  • Paragraph 7: In these Goals and targets, we are setting out a supremely ambitious and transformational vision. We envisage a world [...] A world with equitable and universal access to quality education at all levels, to health care and social protection, where physical, mental and social well-being are assured.
  • Paragraph 26: To promote physical and mental health and well-being, and to extend life expectancy for all, we must achieve universal health coverage and access to quality health care. [...] We are committed to the prevention and treatment of NCDs, including behavioral, developmental and neurological disorders, which constitute a major challenge for sustainable development.
And mental health is included in goals 3.4, 3.5, 3.8:
  • 3.4 By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being
  • 3.5 Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol
  • 3.8 Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all 
This translates into words to include mental health explicitly within universal health coverage, in line with what WHO and FundaMentalSDG have argued for. Together with other NGOs and international organisations, FundaMentalSDG has achieved to bring mental health on the global development agenda. 

The final outcome document: Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
The UN summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda is held from 25-27 September 2015 in New York.
UN Secretary-General's Synthesis Report on the SDGs (4 Dec 2014): 
The UN Secretary General has released the UN SDGs Synthesis report: 
The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives and Protecting the Planet. 
The Synthesis Report contains a clear statement of including mental illness in the SDGs. 
This report will be basis for all negotiations of the future Post-2015 agenda. The UN member states will now negotiate the details of the SDGs.
Read the full report.
Watch the UN General Assembly (Informal meeting): Briefing by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on his synthesis report on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.









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Kofi Annan said on 25 November 2014:
"First, as the world is thinking about a development framework to build on the Millennium Development Goals, 
we need to place mental health in general and depression in particular within the post-2015 agenda.
There is no doubt that depression must become a global priority because it not only affects health and well-being but also diminishes labour productivity and economic growth. (...) 
We now need to find the will and resources to use this knowledge to transform the lives of hundreds of millions of people."
Kofi Annan, at the Economist Group's Global Crisis of Depression Conference, London, 25 November 2014 
Read the full speech here.

Report at the UK Parliament on 26.11.14:
On 26 November the major report 'Mental Health for Sustainable Development' was launched in the UK Parliament of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Global Health and Mental Health. 
The report contains only 4 recommendations - one of which is the target for the Sustainable Development Goals, as proposed by FundaMentalSDG.

Supporting Articles and Research

















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UN GOALS that can cut Mental Illness and Enhance ofi Annan said, on 25 November 2014:
​"First, as the world is thinking about a development framework to build on the Millennium Development Goals,
we need to place mental health in general and depression in particular within the post-2015 agenda. (...)
There is no doubt that depression must become a global priority because it not only affects health and well-being but also diminishes labour productivity and economic growth. (...) 
We now need to find the will and resources to use this knowledge to transform the lives of hundreds of millions
​of people."

Kofi Annan, at the Economist Group's Global Crisis of Depression Conference, London, 25 November 2014 
Read the full speech here:.
The UN has now adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
and mental health is included !
This wonderful, historic step for global mental health
became a reality on OCTOBER 5, 2015!!

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children worldwide are being uprooted, forcibly displaced at increasingly higher rates from their homes, separated from
their families. most die from injury, illness, starvation, attempting to reach borders of their countries. those who reach borders are in poor shape, highly vulnerable to abduction, trafficking. we currently collaborate with and give psychological support to those serving them there (see below) -- we are also successfully writing grant appeals for emergency services in areas of active, protracted conflict and for training others in the prevention of gender-based violence and other prevention-related topics (Burundi). we have assisted country leaders to collaborate in advocating for themselves, for example, with NEAR HUMANITARIAN NETWORK, achieving excellent results-- obtaining high rates of funding through international grantors for sub-saharan nations  who historically have awarded high amounts of monies primarily to Northern Hemisphere countries who are small and low in need, only allotting substandard, trickle-down, leftover substandard amounts to the impoverished, Southern Hemisphere countries not organized enough to advocate for themselves. Pending funding needed to apply , we hope to acquire ALNAP status to further benefit our subsaharan countries such as Burundi. 
​Jordanian camps for Syrian children * Calais camps * Tanzania camp for children of Burundi with Rwanda, DRC, & Goma children * children of Uganda & South Sudan SUTCO, Save the Children South Sudan * Somalian children * US indigent, missing & trafficked children/youth through Blue Canoe * children and the mothers of St. Lucia Island, Carribbean * children of Kenya, Kibera School * Lifeline Nehemiah & children affected by Sierra Leone mudslides * UNHCR Uganda Reach a Hand reproductive education, rights, and protection peer advocacy groups for youth
Photos used under Creative Commons from bibquimperle3, john.gillespie, john.gillespie, john.gillespie, M. Martin Vicente, M. Martin Vicente, M. Martin Vicente, bibquimperle3