{"id":93991,"date":"2019-10-17T15:15:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T22:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=93991"},"modified":"2019-10-17T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T22:15:08","slug":"policy-of-leave-no-one-behind-in-development-must-resonate-at-all-levels-sri-lanka-tells-who-heath-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/17\/policy-of-leave-no-one-behind-in-development-must-resonate-at-all-levels-sri-lanka-tells-who-heath-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Policy of \u2018Leave No One Behind\u2019 in development must resonate at all levels, Sri Lanka tells WHO Heath Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka Geneva<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Addressing the WHO\nMetal Health Forum held in Geneva on 14 October 2019, Sri Lanka updated the\nglobal healthcare community, which comprised policy experts and representatives\nof Member States and international organisations, on progress achieved in\nadvancing mental health, providing healthcare support and improving the working\nenvironment that could foster good health and wellbeing among the Sri Lankan population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The intervention made\nby Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka in Geneva at\nthe Forum dealt with three main points namely, the need for mental healthcare\nand delivery of assistance to be holistic; the importance of an inclusive\napproach that ensured availability of mental healthcare coverage throughout the\nentire cycle of vulnerability; and the sustainment of a supportive environment\nthat assured security, empathy and care for at-risk individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sri Lankan envoy\ncalled upon mental health policy makers and experts to attune themselves to the\nurgency of addressing this growing global health concern as the international\ncommunity actively pursued the UN Development Agenda 2030 and SDG 3 \u2013 Good\nHealth and Wellbeing. If the policy of \u2018Leave No One Behind\u2019 is to have any\npractical meaning\u201d Ambassador Azeez said it was important the message should\nresonate with people at all levels\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A proper assessment of\nall risk factors is in order if comprehensive mental healthcare is to be\neffectively ensured, added Ambassador Azeez, emphasising further that such an\nassessment would help countries find innovative solutions as well as&nbsp;\nscale their efforts towards the implementation of&nbsp; comprehensive\nmulti-sectoral mental healthcare prevention strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka also\nreferred to the Presidential Task Force on Suicide Prevention, stressing that a\nnumber of multi-faceted and multi-sectoral recommendations of the Task Force\ncontinued to be followed up at the national level.&nbsp; Among pro-active\nprevention measures taken by the government, remained media guidelines\nreporting; mental health promotion in schools; training programmes for\nhealthcare providers on mental health; programmes on prevention and\nrehabilitation for alcohol and substance abuse; and operationalisation of\nhelplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka further\ninformed the Forum that a national mental healthcare survey is due to begin in\nthe year 2020, adding that it would help identify treatment gap, healthcare\nseeking pattern and impact of mental health vulnerability.&nbsp; The pivotal\nrole of media in educating the public, creating dialogue and working towards\nthe elimination of stigma around mental health challenges was also highlighted\nas was the importance of WHO using international sports events as platforms to\nincrease awareness of the importance of addressing mental healthcare challenges\nand the related stigma surrounding it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2019 edition of\nthe Mental Health Forum convened by WHO focused on a specific theme \u2018Enhancing\ncountry action on Mental Health\u2019 as part of its policy dialogue in advancing\nthe WHO Special Initiatives for Mental Health 2019-2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Geneva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka Geneva Addressing the WHO Metal Health Forum held in Geneva on 14 October 2019, Sri Lanka updated the global healthcare community, which comprised policy experts and representatives of Member States and international organisations, on progress achieved in advancing mental health, providing healthcare support and improving the working environment that could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}