Wednesday | 09 Oct 2024

EMEA Advisor, Harris Eyre, Speaks at World Health Assembly Mental Health Investing Event

The world faces a mental health crisis – and a global annual mental health financing gap of at least $200 billion as recently reported by United for Global Mental Health. There is an urgent imperative to better support this critical component of holistic health worldwide.

This past week on the sidelines of the 77th World Health Assembly, the McKinsey Health Institute co-hosted alongside Clinton Global Initiative, Wellcome Trust, and Kokoro a discussion with funders, multilateral leaders, business leaders, and social impact organizations to chart a pathway to unleashing mental health investment where it matters most. Speakers included Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. CEO Neil Buddy Shah, World Health Organization Mental Health Specialist Dan Chisholm, Vitol Foundation CEO Shikha Goyal, and EMEA Advisor and Rice University Senior Fellow Harris Eyre MD PhD. There was a rich dialogue by many thoughtful cross-sector leaders coming together on this critical topic.

Brain health challenges make up roughly 10% of the global disease burden – and contribute to 333 million years of high-quality life lost each year – and are addressable, including through scaling known interventions today. Find the global breakdown of brain health challenges worldwide from the McKinsey Health Institute and Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI) here: https://lnkd.in/gM4B5Hws

Eyre noted a recent paper he coauthored in Bulletins of the World Health Organization, ‘The influence of economic policies on social environments and mental health’, which informed the World Health Assembly Special Resolution A77/A/CONF./2

This event took place the evening after the high-level dialogue on the brain economy which EMEA also attended with the European Investment Bank Institute. See report here.